In his Budget speech last week the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, announced that the impact of either removing employers’ ability to operate a default retirement age of 65 or of increasing this age would be included in a formal consultation documentation to be published shortly.

Peter Cullimore, of Universal Care, told Recruiter he would welcome the removal of these “unnecessary” current restrictions. He said that in the nursing and care sector, in which his agency operated, getting rid of this restriction was essential. “In the nursing and care sector it is the only way that demand for care staff can be met,” he said. consideration in recruiting staff. Fitness and ability to do the job should be the priority,” he added.

Cullimore said it was quite possible for a 70-year old year old to be fitter than a 50-year old for a particular job.

In 2005 Nationwide extended its flexible retirement policy to allow staff to work up to the age of 75. John Wrighthouse, HR manager at Nationwide, told Recruiter in a statement that the policy means: “We are able to retain high performers and attract the best talent regardless of age.”

Wrighthouse added: “Our pre-interview screening process does not assess applicants on age but on competence and our online application process ensures age-related data is recorded for monitoring purposes but is unseen by those involved in the selection process.”

Glynis Frew, a director of Hunters Property Group in Leeds said the company had never had a compulsory retirement age. The firm’s oldest employee is 75.
Frew told Recruiter she supported the removal of the compulsory retirement age. And she said there were good reasons to recruit older workers.

“More mature people are prepared to put themselves out for the customer. It’s the quality of the service not the age - that’s what matters more than anything,” said Frew.

More mature people are prepared to put themselves out for the customer. It’s the quality of the service not the age - that’s what matters more than anything

Mature workers also boost the mix of talent in a company, particularly when combined with job share and with part-time working to produce a flexible workforce, she added.

Frew predicted that as the demographic time bomb began to take effect, more employers would abolish their compulsory retirement ages. And she added that concerns that older workers did not learn as quickly and therefore were less attractive to employers than younger workers were wide of the mark.

“Some older workers find IT a bit difficult but that is not to say they can’t do it if they get more one-to-one [tuition]. They can still do it. They just need to get over the fear.”

The case for hiring older workers was highlighted in a recent seminar. Clare Haan from the South-East England Development Authority, told an audience at Brighton University: “With a shrinkage in numbers in the 35-45 old age group, and fewer leaving the education system, there are not enough entrants into the labour market to meet demand [in the region].”