The human touch

7/7/2010 8:47:16 AM #

I want to retire at 65 (mainly for health reasons) and have paid in contribution in for over 40 years, why is it then that despite the current economic climate the right to a pension is now guaranteed after contributions of 20 odd years?
Why not let people retire who have paid into the system and make those work who have contributed little?

Mark Vidler | Reply

7/19/2010 1:40:47 PM #

Great idea - I just love the idea of 100 year old dentists, brain surgeons, car mechanics, refuse collection operatives, dancers, air hostess etc, etc.
With not enough jobs for the unemployed youngsters, it is a super idea to let everyone go on forever and deny youngsters the opportunity of a job.
I presume, that this will still not affect anyone employed by the government, who will still retire at 55 on gold plated pension.

Derek Mathers | Reply

7/20/2010 7:38:14 AM #

Long overdue! Changes of occupation should be determined by physical and mental capacity and take account of the wishes of the individual and the employer, not just the calendar.

The more people voluntarily work past 65, the less pressure there is to force later retirement on the rest.

Colin Grant | Reply

7/20/2010 4:42:38 PM #

We can see from the comments that the potential phasing out of the default retirement age of 65 elicits strong reactions.  People’s perspective on the issue can be very different.  But love the idea or hate it, the reality is that a default retirement age of 65 will not be around for much longer.  

It is worth clarifying exactly what the proposed change means – especially since some press reports have been a bit misleading.  

The default retirement age is the age at or over which an employer can force a person to retire, just because of their age.

It is NOT the same as the age at which individuals are entitled to draw their state, private or occupational pensions, (though the planned increase in the state pension age to 67 does of course influence the debate on this issue).

Nor does removing the default retirement age mean that anyone will be forced to work for longer than they want.

Phasing out the default retirement age means that individuals will have much greater power to decide the age at which they want to retire and employers who want them to go will have to base their decision on something other that age.  

This will create problems for employers  - and EEF will continue to bring these problems to the attention of the Coalition Government, DWP and BIS.  

You can help us do this. If you are an EEF member, use this comment page to let us know if you have particular concerns about how you will manage your workforce if the default retirement age is phased out and let us have your ideas of how these difficulties could be alleviated

Charlotte Hagestadt, Principal Adviser, Solicitor, EEF | Reply

7/30/2010 7:13:28 AM #

As a dircetor of a small [17 FTE] workforce the problems it will give are as follows:

Unless given greater freedom to change contracts past 65 [or any retirement age] the issue regarding staff taking off time for sickness will increase even more -we know this for a fact as people get older then colds/flu etc take longer to recover from.

The other fact is that generally speaking older people become less effective performance begins to weaken and productivity will reduce.

If the government are going to push this through then employers' will need to be able to take effective action to overcome these issues - currently with employment law as it stands we will not be able to do this I can company's with generous sick pay and other good terms and conditions in place having to cut back these benefits to handle the situation!

William Nicholls | Reply

7/30/2010 10:19:30 AM #

Why rushing to scrap the Default Retirement Age is a bad idea

Why rushing to scrap the Default Retirement Age is a bad idea

HR Blog | Reply

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