Extending the economic activity of the elderly is now an important developmental challenge, especially given the shrinking and ageing of the population and the increasing risk to the stability of the pension system. Activation of the elderly long-term unemployed and retaining them in employment is a key priority of labour market policy. Therefore, this article attempts to analyse the situation of the unemployed elderly on the labour market as well as the solutions implemented in Germany within the frame of the ‘Perspektive 50 plus — Beschäftigungspakte für Ältere in den Regionen’ programme. The core idea of this programme was to set incentives for regional and local actors to form local alliances in order to develop and implement new effective strategies and instruments for sustainable integration of the elderly long-term unemployed into the regular labour market. ‘The Perspective 50 plus’ programme resulted in an employment effect being 10 percentage points higher than the German average within the same age category and costs that were below regional average. This success was achieved by using an individually tailored approach and by implementation of innovative measures at the stage of diagnosis, participation in the program and following the start of employment.