Employers oppose default retirement age of 65 which has been ruled unlawful

New research from international law firm Eversheds shows that the vast majority of employers (73%) want to keep it in place. The findings revealed a concern among employers that workforce planning would be hamstrung without the clarity that the law currently provides. However, they also showed a willingness among organisations to allow people to continue to work beyond the age of 65.

The research conducted among 250 senior managers and HR professionals, revealed that almost a quarter of employers (24%) usually accept requests to work beyond normal retirement age, while 68% consider requests on an individual basis. Only a small proportion of employers (8%) said they usually decline requests to work beyond 65.

Earlier in summer, the Department for Work and Pensions announced that it was bringing forward its review of the retirement age by twelve months to 2010. In the meantime, employers are expecting the outcome of the Heyday case to be published later this month, which, depending on the outcome, could pre-empt the DWP's review.

The findings show that workforce planning is the main reason for organisations to retain a default retirement age, but issues of health and safety and capability were also raised. Just under a third 31 percent said they are concerned about the capacity of some older workers to continue to perform well beyond the age of 65.

While the majority of employers said they hoped that the default retirement age would be retained following the DWP review in 2010, a small number of respondents eight percent said that raising the default retirement age would be better than abolishing it altogether, allowing for at least some flexibility to enable workforce planning.

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29 September 2009