Older people and employment
We are committed to improving the labour market position of older workers. These welfare reform measures will help make the labour market fairer for jobseekers over 50.
We have aligned our employment support for long-term unemployed people aged 50-59 with those in their 30s and 40s. In addition, we have improved the back-to-work support for jobseekers over 50 and their partners. Pilots are currently testing ways of providing information to help people make decisions about work, training and retirement. We are also working with employers to help them to realise the business benefits of employing older workers as part of a mixed age workforce and to encourage them to adopt flexible working and retirement arrangements.
On 1 October 2006 age discrimination legislation came into force. The legislation makes it unlawful to discriminate on the ground of age in employment and vocational training. It also introduced a default retirement age of 65. It is unlawful for employers to force people to retire below this age unless, in their particular case, they can objectively justify a lower age. Employers don’t have to use age 65, they can choose to have a higher age or no retirement age. Employees also gained the right, and a formal procedure, to request working past their employer's retirement age, which their employer has a duty to consider. A review of the default retirement age will be carried out in 2011. More information is available on the Age Positive website.