It is worth considering the impact of the removal of the default retirement age on companies and individuals. If someone at or approaching 65 is underperforming then companies will be more inclined to follow capability procedures, and terminate for lack of capacity, whereas before they might have been prepared to wait until they could lawfully issue notice of retirement.
Companies may also ensure a retirement age is included in their contracts of employment. Alternatively, where the above does not apply, individuals who may have been looking forward to retiring at 65, may now feel morally compelled to work longer.
Removal of the default retirement age could result in increased litigation. Older people may challenge contractual retirement ages, believe they have been unfairly targeted for capability proceedings, or feel that termination for any other reason, including redundancy, is in fact age discrimination and an alternative means of terminating employment when they can no longer be forced to retire at 65. (We know that age discrimination exists, hence the difficulty for older workers seeking re-employment- removing the default retirement age will not remove the underlying problem).
Read more about Hart Brown's Employment department.
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