As we all know, life has a way of throwing the unexpected at us. We can make all the careful plans we like, but sometimes they just don't happen.

No matter how much we consider we are prepared for the future, we can't think of everything that could happen as we age.

We all know some of the issues that can arise. You're laid off from a job you've been doing for decades, or there is a marriage breakdown, ill health or one of dozens of other reasons life takes a sudden - and unwelcome - turn for the worse.

These issues are only going to be made worse by others like the rising cost of utilities, food and rent. The increasing cost of housing means it's likely to take people longer to pay off mortgages.

According to the Council on the Ageing in NSW, 13 per cent of people aged 50 and older are still paying off their mortgages.

Right now in Australia there are more than 173,000 people aged 55 or older who are on Newstart.

Back on July 1, government changes kicked in and brought the age at which Australians can claim the aged pension to 66. It is due to increase again to 66.5 years in 2021 and 67 in 2023.

People aged older than 55 are said to be the single largest group of Australians accessing Newstart, which works out at about $370 a fortnight less than the aged pension.

There have been growing calls in recent months for an increase to the Newstart allowance, which is currently $555.70 a fortnight.

It's just not enough and it's also not good enough to tell people that the best kind of benefit is a job. Sometimes jobs aren't that easy to get when you're an older jobseeker.

I suspect rather than relying on either Newstart or a pension, most of these people would actually prefer to be in the workforce.

We know we live in a country with an ageing population. Yet, we also live in a world that worships youth.

According to the Diversity Council of Australia, ageism can start to be an issue from around the age of 45.

A 2016 survey from the Australian Human Rights Commission found 27 per cent of people over the age of 50 had recently experienced discrimination in the workplace.

I cannot help but wonder whether part of the problem is that, somewhere, we stopped valuing experience and wisdom.

There is a real irony in our ever-growing obsession with "youth" when we are all living longer, healthier lives.

Last week, the ABC reported that a reluctance by businesses to employ older workers was costing the economy up to $10 billion a year. Economists say discrimination around employing people older than 55 is placing a strain on public resources.

The Employing Older Workers report, overseen by the Australian Human Rights Commission, found that almost a third of Australian employers continue to specify an age limit for job applicants, despite the practice being illegal.

Moreover, 30 per cent of those employers will not employ people over 50, despite two-thirds acknowledging that this protocol has lost the business valuable skills and intellectual property.

They say giving ageing Australians a job would help stimulate a slowing economy and ease the burden on the public purse.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced trials in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide to provide counselling to older Australian jobseekers and training them to work in the hospitality, aged-care and small business sectors.

The trials are part of a wider $48.5 million package to get disadvantaged Australians back into work.

I have no idea whether these trials will prove successful or otherwise, but I do know this: We cannot afford, financially or socially, to sideline older people just because they've hit some kind of imagined use-by date.

There is too much experience, not just workplace but also in life, that could be lost.

Why have we stopped appreciating that older people have learned some stuff along their way through life?

Surely just as we appreciate the freshness and enthusiasm that is associated with young workers, we can see the benefits of tempering that with the experience and knowledge that comes simply from having been around a while?