Removing the default retirement age (DRA) for women represents a good opportunity for the social care sector to retain the talent and expertise needed to meet the demands of Britain’s rapidly ageing population, according to medical, health and social care job board BritishMedicalJobs.com.

The proposals under the new Pension Bill to increase the retirement age of women (who form around 80% of all social care workers in the UK) by up to two years could also reduce the social care sector’s over-dependence on migrant workers to fill much needed vacancies, says Andrei Shelton, managing director of BritishMedicalJobs.com.

Shelton says: “Increasingly migrant workers are being recruited into social care positions from within and outside the European Union, a trend repeated in other countries including Ireland, Italy and Austria. Although the number of migrant workers employed in the social care sector has increased faster than the national average for the UK overall over the last 10 years, there remains an ever-present demand.

“We have seen a 45% rise in demand for social care workers during the 12-month period from April 2010 to April 2011 and based on current population projections, we expect this figure to continue rising for the foreseeable future.”