Default retirement age scrapped

Age discrimination campaigners are celebrating a major victory as laws come into place preventing employers from forcing their workers into retirement.

Previously companies could make employees retire on the grounds that they had reached the default retirement age (DRA).

However, from October 1 this will no longer be allowed and the DRA will be axed.

The Government says that the DRA has been scrapped because people are living longer and becoming healthier, but Liz Field, CEO of the Financial Skills Partnership, says that while this is true, it also addresses age diversity in the UK's workforce that often focuses on the younger end of the spectrum.

She says that the experience that older workers can bring to the table offers huge benefits to employers, particularly in the current financial climate when businesses need to be resilient.

Age UK has welcomed the move after campaigning on the issue for years. It says the axing of the DRA is a major step forward in the battle against age discrimination in the workplace, which is still rife five years after laws were introduced making it illegal.

Age UK's Charity Director, Michelle Mitchell, said: 'The end of the Default Retirement Age is a victory for older workers who for too long have been consigned to the scrapheap for no reason other than prejudice.

'There is still a long way to go before older workers are treated as equals in the workplace. We have seen a very small improvement over the last five years but, as the statistics show, not nearly enough. We hope that, by taking away the arbitrary "best before" date for employers, attitudes towards older workers will quickly evolve to look at their skills and experience, not their date of birth.'

Copyright Press Association 2011