25 March 2010
Alistair Darling said the government is looking into scrapping
the compulsory retirement age of 65. In what he termed as a "Budget
for recovery", Mr Darling said he was looking to improve rights for
older workers and was looking into scrapping the compulsory
retirement age.
Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown
said the government was talking about scrapping the compulsory
retirement age, without actually confirming the outcome of the
ongoing review on the subject.
The government announced it would bring forward a review on
investigating if a default retirement age was still relevant in
today's society after the High Court ruled it was legal for
employers to force workers to retire at 65.
The ruling was the result of a test case brought by Age Concern
and Help the Aged on the legality of the default retirement age in
July. Mr Justice Blake decided that the default retirement age
introduced by the government in 2006 did comply with an EC
directive against age discrimination.
Mr Justice Blake indicated that an exempt retirement age of 65
was lawful back in 2006 when it was introduced, due to the
prevailing circumstances and evidence available at the time.
However, he did say that there was a "compelling case" for a
change in the law and noted the law would not be likely to be
lawful if it were introduced now because of the current economic
conditions.
