News
The era of forced retirement is now at an end
3 October 2011
1st October marked the end of a period of compulsory retirement using the Default Retirement Age (DRA), Denise Keating, CEO of leading age campaigners, the Employers Forum on Age (EFA), comments:
“Tomorrow is a key date in the abolition of compulsory retirement. It is an incredible leap forward on employment practices and great news for individuals. After years of campaigning, we are, at last, at a stage where it is fundamentally discriminatory to force someone to retire just because they reach 65.
The regulations abolishing the DRA came into effect on 6 April, so the last date an employee could have been given notice of retirement under the old rules was 5 April 2011. Notices issued before 6 April under the statutory DRA retirement procedure were valid provided that:
The employer gave a minimum of six months’, and a maximum of twelve months’, notice of retirement; and
- The employee reached the age of 65, or any higher normal retirement age, before 1 October 2011.
The only employees still affected by the DRA are those small numbers who were given more than six months’ notice and those whose employer granted, or will grant, an extension to stay on for no more than six months.
The rising numbers of those in work after the age of 65 demonstrate that most employers will take the abolition of the DRA in their stride. Although the Equality Act 2010 allows an employer to justify the use of a fixed retirement age we believe that in practice few will do so because of the risk of legal challenge.
The end of the default retirement age is all about giving people choice as to when and how they retire. We are delighted that individuals who want to carry on working past the age of traditional retirement, or indeed have to due to financial reasons, will be able to choose to do so. Tomorrow finally heralds a new approach to retirement.
It is in our view to the credit of the Coalition government that they decided quickly and without hesitation to bring this major reform into effect.”