BlogWhen To Hang “Your Boots Up.”

It’s been in the news a lot recently, and with the age discrimination firmly embedded into our working lives, the retirement age for workers is now being debated, not only in businesses but also in everyday politics. In a news article in Personnel Today is has been reported that employers and industry groups have been urged to make their views known on the default retirement age (DRA) ahead of a review scheduled for next year.
Work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper has called on employers to submit evidence as part of the review of the DRA, which has been brought forward a year to 2010 following pressure from campaigners, MPs and judges.
“People need choice in retirement. Now is the right time to look again at whether we should have a default retirement age at all,” Cooper said.
“We need to give people the choice about how long they work and when they retire, and that means changing employment practices too. That is why we are asking businesses to contribute evidence to our review of the default retirement age.”
As part of his judgment in the Heyday legal case, Justice Blake ruled that the DRA was lawful when first introduced in 2006, but there was now a “compelling” case for setting the age higher than 65. In his judgment, he stated: “I cannot presently see how 65 could remain as a DRA after the [government] review.”
So what are you doing to review DRA within your organisations and how important is it for businesses to have this on their HR agenda?