Compulsory retirement age to be scrapped

The Government's announcement has prompted a mixed reaction..

The Government has confirmed that employers will no longer be able to force employees to retire at age 65 from 1 October this year. And from 6 April until then only employees who were notified of their retirement before 6 April and whose retirement date falls before 1 October can be compulsorily retired at 65.

On the one hand this is good news. Some people want to work beyond 65. And inadequate pension provision means greater numbers of employees will likely need to work past 65 to ensure they can eventually retire on a reasonable income. Removing the default retirement age allows them to do so.

But it will do little to ease the pressure on rising unemployment and some employers could suffer from having less flexibility to manage employee numbers.

Employers will have to justify that older workers can no longer carry out their job properly before asking them to retire - I predict employment lawyers will be busier than ever...

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