Hi,

I am with a work program provider Ingeus who asked me to apply for a job with a local agency, this job was an immediate start and the induction was to commence within the week.

A member of staff with Ingeus took my details and then said as we want a cross section may I ask your age please ?

2 weeks later I have heard nothing, I have mentioned it but they just brush aside saying they never took anyone on which I find strange.

How would I go finding out if indeed my age was a factor, is asking the question about my age discrimination regardless and if so who do I take my complaint to.

Any help advice appreciated.

Would be very hard to prove age discrimination. How old are you?

More likely, they just didn't fancy you for the job. It happens.

If they did not fancy me for the job then they used my age to make their decision as that along with my name was the only piece of info they had.

I am reading that it is unlawful to even ask a candidate for their age unless they are under 18 or it is a age related occupation whatever that could be, this was warehouse work so I presume it does not come under that category.

I agree it is difficult to prove age was a factor as to why I was not selected for a interview but why was age even mentioned if it could lead to speculation such as mine.

I am over 50

As far as I know it is not illegal to ask age, although you can not discriminate . There are other ways of identifying age, for example at 50 you will have done o levels or cse's as opposed to gcse's. Length of job history might be another clue although some recommend only giving 10 years job history.

I think proving discrimination is almost impossible especially if they didn't hire anyone.

https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination/recruitment

"You can only ask for someone’s date of birth on an application form if they must be a certain age to do the job, eg selling alcohol."

How does that cut with others saying it is ok?

I forgot to add "they never took anyone on" does not imply interviews never took place it could be interpreted as no one successfully secured the post.

Now if that is the case then it is not such a leap of faith to conclude that the as the only piece of information they had about me was my contact details and age, what element of that would prevent them from asking me to attend the selection process other than my age.

This was an agency they want as many people as possible .

I understand it could be difficult to prove without them actually coming out and saying so but they broke the rules by asking my age in first place, if that is not the case then the Government are misleading in the information they publish.

What were the exact details for the warehouse job advertised?

How old are you?

What else was on your application? Was it ONLY your name and age?

I am 52, the only information they took was my name and age, it was a Warehouse vacancy but no other details.

When I was looking for work, one would see the same "vacancy" being advertised month after month, often by multiple agencies. I quickly concluded that there was no genuine vacancy and the agency was just looking to fill their books with names.

It is quite possible that your vacancy was just another phantom job that never materialised on the agency's books.

I forgot to add "they never took anyone on" does not imply interviews never took place it could be interpreted as no one successfully secured the post.

 

Now if that is the case then it is not such a leap of faith to conclude that the as the only piece of information they had about me was my contact details and age, what element of that would prevent them from asking me to attend the selection process other than my age.

 

This was an agency they want as many people as possible .

 

I understand it could be difficult to prove without them actually coming out and saying so but they broke the rules by asking my age in first place, if that is not the case then the Government are misleading in the information they publish.

If you read further guidance it also says that while they may want to ask age , race, gender etc these should only be used for monitoring purposes and kept separate from the application.

AFAIK it is not illegal to ask how old you are but it is illegal to discriminate on the basis , hence as a form of due diligence many firms do not ask so they can not be accused , but as I said there is more than one way to ascertain someones age.

My understanding of that document is that they are guidelines to help the employer prevent allegations of discrimination

So when you signed up with Ingeus, did you ever supply them with a CV or details of your work history in order for them to help find you an appropriate job?

Do you have previous warehouse experience which may have influenced either the agency's decision about who to take on or the work programme provider's decision on who to recommend?

There are so many reasons why people don't get jobs and I feel you will have to let this one go. Leave the provider and join another agency if needs be.

Good sister

I doubt very much if leaving the work provider is an option as I am taking this as being the DWP sanctioned work program which is not optional

Good sister

I doubt very much if leaving the work provider is an option as I am taking this as being the DWP sanctioned work program which is not optional

Fair enough if that's the case - you learn something new every day!

Just to be clear this was arranged by Ingeus it was not a phantom vacancy, as fletch has stated I am not able to leave Ingeus.

I still feel that they should not have asked me my age, obviously it will become apparent at some point how old I am, but age should not be a factor unless it involves let say selling alcohol in which case a lawful way to tackle that question is

Are you over 18 ? if no what is your date of birth ?

Regardless of my experience or suitability age should not have arisen.

I have also withdrawn my consent for Ingeus to hold a copy of my CV so if the decision was based on the potential employee viewing my CV then that needs addressing but I do not think that was the case.

I guess the lesson I am learning is that we have rights, but damned if ever try to exercise them.

When I had the misfortune to be involved with ingeus I was very much of the nod politely when they did my cv for me but at the same time only gave them the minimum of info. It was quite funny because the advisor used me to help other non pc literate people and of course I always advised them to give minimum info such as refusing access to UJM and setting up an email just for job searches.

I was lucky because at the time my sister worked in careers advice for a major university and was more aufait with CV writing than my advisor was