Default Retirement Age

Call for evidence to feed into the Government's review of the default retirement age

The review of the default retirement age will be conducted jointly by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and will consider whether the default retirement age of 65 remains appropriate and necessary. In conducting the review, it will be necessary to look at many issues including the needs of business and individuals in the prevailing economic climate.

The Government is asking for evidence including:

•    The operation of the default retirement age in practice;
•    The reasons that businesses use mandatory retirement ages;
•    The impacts on businesses, individuals and the economy of raising or removing the DRA
•    The experience of businesses operating without a default retirement age;
•    How could any costs of raising or removing the DRA be mitigated and benefits realised.

Submissions are requested by 1 February 2010 and should be emailed to draevidence@bis.gsi.gov.uk   and/or posted to DRA Evidence, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, V497, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET.

The Government has also commissioned a major research project – the Survey of Employers’ Policies, Practices and Preferences relating to age (SEPPP) to provide an insight into employers’ age based practices, in particular the use of the default retirement age.