Retirement Age Scrapped From April

by Katy Murcutt - Paralegal

13 January 2011, filed under Employment

The Government has announced the retirement age of 65 years will no longer apply from April this year. The change comes after a statement released by Government spokesman stated that the retirement age no longer applies as people are living longer and are able to work later into life due to good health.

Despite increasing pressure from business organisations to retain the right to retire at 65 years of age, the Government has decided to end this right for UK workers.

The Government stated that having a specified retirement age in place was discriminatory to workers as statistics showed employers were forcing retirement aged workers out of well paid positions to recruit younger employees for a lower salary to save the company money. There are currently nearly 900,000 people aged over 65 years in the UK.

Employment Relations Minister Edward Davey has said that retirement should be a choice and not compulsory. However, this high profile policy change could leave businesses with uncertainty about how to manage retirement when older employees leave the company. As the population ages, more people may want to work to a later age.

The removal of an official retirement age ill be implemented from 6th April and will be completed by 11th october this year. For employers, this means that from April this year they can no longer give 6 months notice to an employee for compulsory retirement.

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