The Coalition's Programme for Government commits the Government to phasing out the Default Retirement Age (DRA). This consultation document sets out the background to the DRA, and explains how the Government is proposing to remove it.
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, which came into force on 1 October 2006, provide for a default retirement age of 65 that employers can rely on if they wish. The regulations make earlier retirement ages unlawful unless employers can objectively justify them. The regulations also introduced a new statutory right for individuals to request postponement of retirement beyond the age of 65 - requests which the employer must consider.
For more information http://www.bis.gov.uk/retirement-age
PDF version This paper uses new evidence available from a unique UK dataset, which combines information from household survey data on individuals' circumstances at or near retirement with information on their lifetime earnings from administrative records, to look at how retirement incomes relate to lifetime earnings. This paper adds to the evidence base on retirement income adequacy and how retirement incomes relate to lifetime earnings in two dimensions. First, we use information on individuals' actual entitlements to state pensions to shed light on the groups for whom previous estimates of state pension entitlement, and hence resource adequacy (see Banks, Emmerson, Oldfield and Tetlow, 2005), could be improved upon. Second, we examine how closely correlated income in retirement is to income during working life and whether the relationship observed differs across groups defined according to various personal characteristics.
http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/5233
PHASING OUT THE DEFAULT RETIREMENT AGE : GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO CONSULTATION
http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/employment-matters/docs/p/11-536-ph...
Also see http://nds.coi.gov.uk/Content/detail.aspx?NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=417403&...
Click here for announcement
Click here for Equality and Human Rights Commission response to the announcement
A number of related documents were also published on 29 July by the Department for Work and Pensions
Click here for ‘Review of the Default Retirement Age: Summary of the stakeholder evidence’
Click here for ‘A Comparative Review of International Approaches to Mandatory Retirement’
Click here for ‘Default Retirement Age: Employer qualitative research’
Click here for ‘Second Survey of Employers’ Policies, Practices and Preferences Relating to Age 2010’
Click here for ‘Pathways to retirement: The influence of employer policy and practice on retirement decisions’
http://www.edf.org.uk/blog/?p=7007