Dr Ros Altmann

Dr Altmann said: “The Default Retirement Age should have been abolished years ago. The timetable must certainly not slip. Ageism has no place in a modern labour market.

“Of course it is more convenient for employers to be able to just sack someone for being 65, but that is not fair on the workers themselves. It is also a huge waste of our national resources.

“Employers must judge workers fairly. People are not old or 'past it' at 65 any more. Of course some people are not fit to work, but that applies at much younger ages too and employers will have to adjust their attitudes and assess workers' skills objectively, not on the basis of old-fashioned prejudice. Most people still have enormous amounts to offer employers.

“Longer working lives are an essential element of overcoming our pensions crisis. The first baby-boomers reach age 65 in 2011 and the demographics mean millions more following in coming years.

“Their pensions have not worked out in the way they had expected, and they are still fit and healthy. They would much rather stay on at work than be forced to retire. If they are forced out of the labour market, they will end up poorer in retirement and that will impact the economy as a whole, as they will have less money to spend.

“Whether or not a worker is suitable for employment should be determined by their skill and ability, not their chronological age. Employers must be obliged to assess workers' suitability for their jobs on an individual basis, not according to some arbitrary criteria that consigns older workers to a labour market scrapheap on which they do not belong.

“There is a whole new phase of life waiting for workers - a period of years when they work part-time, cutting down gradually rather than suddenly stopping altogether.

“This is the way forward for employers and the sooner they wake up to the new realities, the better. Retirement should be a process, not an event, with 'bonus years' of part-time work that allow workers to keep earning and employers to retain their skills.

“Flexible retirement and gradual change in work patterns, or perhaps use of older workers for mentoring, training younger workers in firm-specific skills, job-sharing and so on will all require careful handling, but would be of enormous benefit to employers, employees and society as a whole. Unless people keep working longer, we will all be poorer in future.”

This article was published on December 13, 2010.