News

Consultation on the future of Retirement announced in the budget

24 March 2010

The announcement includes a commitment to move away from the current DRA of 65, to consult on increasing or removing it altogether and on strengthening the rights of the employee in retirement decisions.

This is significant progress and has been a long time coming.  Many EFA members have been operating successfully without a retirement age for years and the EFA is committed to working with the Government and employers to achieve a workable and sustainable alternative to forced retirement.

Further to the announcement in today’s Budget regarding the Government launching a formal consultation on reforms to the Default Retirement Age, Rachel Krys, Campaign Director of leading age campaigners, the Employers Forum on Age (EFA), commented:

“We are delighted that the Government has finally come to its senses and realised it is time to do something concrete and positive about the antiquated default retirement age, and strengthen the position of the employee.

However, it’s been a long time coming.  The Employer’s Forum on Age (EFA) has been campaigning against the forced retirement of workers for many years because it is fundamentally discriminatory.  It is based on the assumption that age affects someone’s ability to do their job, and unlike other characteristics like race or gender, age can be used arbitrarily to fire people.  The time has come to take age discrimination as seriously as race or sex discrimination.

In addition, it is vital to address the fact that people are living longer, many pensions have failed due to the recent economic crisis and we cannot afford to fund over 20 years of retirement.

Removal of the default retirement age is the only answer, 65 should be just another birthday and we look forward to working with the Government to achieve this. 

For more information, or to arrange an interview, please contact the following: 

Rachel Krys T: 07799 625 233  E: rachel.krys@efa.org.uk

Lansons Communications, Chantal Heckford
T: 0207 294 3630 E: chantalh@lansons.com

The Employers Forum on Age (EFA) is the leading campaigner on age issues in the workplace. The EFA is a think tank of employers established in 1996 to eradicate ageism in the workplace. Since then it has helped provide advice, training and support for workplaces that want to eradicate age discrimination from their employment practices and helped prepare them for the new legislation.

The EFA works with a number of employers, including B&Q, Hertfordshire County Council, Department for Work and Pensions, Nationwide, Marks & Spencer and JD Wetherspoons, who report that operating without the default retirement age has resulted in significant business benefits; filling skills gaps, keeping valuable members of their workforce, having a better connection with their diverse customer base and improving business performance.

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