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Forum - Fixed retirement age to be axed?
Fixed retirement age to be axed?
Thu, 05/08/2010 - 15:46 — Mark Williams
From October 2011, the government wants to scrap the UK default retirement age, after which employers would not be allowed to dismiss staff because they had reached 65-years-old.
Currently, an employer can force an employee to retire at 65 without having to pay them compensation. Legally, employers must hold a meeting with the employee to discuss the matter at least six months before the staff member's 65th birthday. Thereafter, it's entirely at the employer's discretion whether they terminate employment.
What do you think, are we too hung up on age in the workplace? If an employee wants to carry on working after they reach 65 and they make a good contribution to your business, why would you want them to leave? In the world of work, are we all a bit guilty of valuing youth over maturity and experience? Thoughts please...
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I had one employee who worked 'till he was nearly 70 and I would have been happy to continue his employment beyond the time he chose to leave. I had another employee who was winding down and frankly doing very little for some time before retirement age, There were also other issues which I tried accomodate but we wasted a lot of money in his last 2 years before retirement. If he had been any good I would have retained him. In the future I will have difficulty in removing such an employee when reaching the age of 65. It's just unnecessary hassle doing the performance management thing. Just wait for the employment tribunals to fill up with cases!
Working is all about capability not age and employers need to be managing performance - both good and bad - with that in mind. Great employers will in the future be looking at flexible choices for employees in terms of the type of work, benefits and hours, in order to retain their best employees for as long as possible.
Yes to all the above (or below).
I have never really been a fan of a fixed retirement age for a number of reasons:
- the time to retire can be affected by health or physical fitness
- it can also be influenced by affluence (or lack of)
- the mental effects of retiring are many and varied - some people take to it extremely well and continue to be very mentally active, yet others struggle to accommodate the change in activity levels sometimes resulting in depression or other mental/personality depreciation
- many other aspects also have to be considered - for example, family circumstances, lifestyle expectations, social elements, and even cultural elements
And this is all just for 'starters'.
The only conclusion that can realistically be made is that retirment age is a very individual thing.
Providing the very best medical, psychological and physical support is available to everyone considering retiring, then why should we have a fixed retirement age?
There is also the benefit to employers of having people of tremendous experience and knowledge (let alone the understanding of how to build valuable relationships with (e.g.) customers) within their midst.
No retirement age, as I see it, can only be a good thing.
I have never expected that I would/could retire at 65. I'm in my mid-thirties and have been working in the Engineering sector since I graduated about 15 years ago, and can see that there is no need to force retirement on anyone who is physically and mentally capable of doing a job. I do not have any faith in this or any other Government to be able to provide for me in any retirement period regardless of their political colour.
We need to wake up to this issue, but we also need to be more creative as a society in our working lives. My goal is to find an income stream that will allow me to work for a minimal effort, whilst being able to finance a moderate lifestyle. I think that the idea of working for a company, putting in 37 1/2 hours a week and then expecting to be able to live on a State or Company pension is out-moded. There needs to be a societal revolution in how we finance our lives, and quite possibly the internet is the key to all of that.
Simple fact is we are heading for a pensions crisis regardless. The government have got to raise the state retirement age and the vast majority are going to have to work after 65 as they have saved far too little. This is a step in that direction. A couple of years ago a persons average pension fund stood at around £25,000, a frighteningly small sum.
I'm afraid people have got to pull their heads out of the sand, this is very serious, be honest with themselves and there plans. Pensions are not the only answer.
There are numerous ways people can build up pots of money or generate an income but they have got to do something, take some action.
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