Older people
We are committed to investing in older workers. These welfare reform measures will help make the labour market fairer for jobseekers over 50.
We have aligned employment support for long-term unemployed people aged 50-59 with those in their 30s and 40s. In addition, we will be improving back-to-work support for jobseekers over 50 and their partners. Pilots are being set up to test ways of providing information to help people make decisions about work, training and retirement. We will also work with employers to help them to realise the business benefits of employing older workers as part of a mixed age workforce and to encourage them to extend flexible working and retirement arrangements.
On 1 October 2006 age discrimination legislation came into force. The legislation makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of age in employment and vocational training. It also introduced a default retirement age of 65. Employers are unable to force people to retire below this age unless, in their particular case, they can objectively justify a lower age. Employees also gained the right, and a formal procedure, to request working past their employer's retirement age, which the employers have a duty to consider. A review of the default retirement age will be carried out in 2011. More information is available on the Age Positive website.