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Age discrimination at work

Age discrimination at work is unlawful in almost all types of employment. All employees and workers of any age are protected from age discrimination including partners of firms, contract workers and anyone in vocational training.

All aspects of your employment (or prospective employment) are protected from age discrimination, including your:

• recruitment
• employment terms and conditions
• promotions and transfers
• training
• dismissals

In some cases different treatment of a worker or employee because of their age can be justified. For example making special provisions for younger or older workers in order to protect their safety and welfare. See section on objective justification below.

Protection against age discrimination

Redundancy procedures

Your employer must make sure that any redundancy policies don't directly or indirectly discriminate against older workers.

An example of indirect discrimination could be your employer selecting only part-time workers for redundancy, when a large number of these may be older workers. The only exceptions are where an age requirement can be objectively justified.

There is no upper or lower age limit on the entitlement of statutory redundancy pay. Your employer will have to pay you the statutory minimum redundancy payment even if you are under 18 or over 65 (or after your normal retirement age if this is lower).

• Redundancy

The law around retirement is changing

The default retirement age, which allowed your employer to make you retire when you reached 65, is being abolished.

This means that in many cases you should be able to retire when the time is right for you.

If you didn’t receive notice from your employer before 6 April 2011, you can’t be made to retire using the default retirement age. Your employer can only make you retire if this can be objectively justified in the particular circumstances. This is open to challenge at an Employment Tribunal.

See below to find out more about objective justification.

What has changed?

Your employer can only make you retire using default retirement age if both the following apply:

• you were notified before 6 April 2023
• you are aged 65 or above before 1 October 2023

Your employer must have given you between six and 12 months' notice. There is also the possibility of an extension of up to six months through the ‘right to request’. This means the latest possible retirement date that could be set using default retirement age is 5 October 2012.

This change in the law does not affect the State Pension age.

Unfair dismissal claims

There is no upper age limit on making a claim of unfair dismissal.

• Unfair dismissal

Training

Training providers (including employers, further or higher education institutions, private, public or voluntary sector training bodies and adult education programmes) cannot set upper or lower age limits for training, unless they can objectively justify the need.

Service related benefits

Many employers use service related pay and benefits to motivate staff, reward loyalty and recognise experience. If your employer uses ‘length of service’ criteria to increase staff pay or benefits, they can continue to do so, as long as the period of service is not more than five years.

If your employer uses a period longer than five years they must be able to justify their decision with a business need, for example by providing information about recruitment and retention.

Can you be refused a job because you are too young?

It is not unlawful for an employer to request a candidate’s date of birth but this cannot be used to discriminate against the person. Older people experience most age discrimination. However, it also takes place against young people.

It is unlawful for an employer to impose a lower age limit when recruiting, unless this age restriction can be objectively justified or is imposed by law.

Objective justification

If challenged, your employer must be able to justify that any direct or indirect discrimination is a proportionate way of achieving a legitimate aim.

What is proportionate?

Your employer should have no reasonable alternative other than to introduce an age-based practice.

For example, a construction firm hiring for physically demanding work that requires a good level of physical fitness, the employer might have a case for setting a maximum age for their on-site workers for health and safety reasons.

What is a legitimate aim?

A wide variety of aims may be considered legitimate, but they must correspond with a reasonable need for your employer. Economic factors, such as business needs and efficiency may be legitimate aims, but arguing that it could be more expensive not to discriminate will not be a valid justification.

For example, a high street fashion store who wishes to employ younger staff in order to complement their brand image is unlikely to be able to objectively justify this because it is not a valid aim.

What to do next

Talk to your employer first to try to sort out the matter informally. You are entitled to write to your employer if you think you have been discriminated against or harassed because of your age.

Making a complaint about age discrimination

If you feel you are being discriminated against at work, there are forms that can help you obtain information from the person or organisation you feel is responsible. You can then make a better, more informed decision about whether you want to start legal proceedings and, if you do, how to best present your complaint.

To find out more and to download the forms, read the information on the Government Equalities Office website.

You should use these forms if you feel you were discriminated against:

• on or after 1 October 2023
• before 1 October 2023 but the discrimination continued on or after that date

• Equality Act 2010 - forms for obtaining information Opens new window

• Equality Act 2010 - transitional arrangements Opens new window

If you feel you were discriminated against before 1 October 2010, you will not be able to use these forms. There is an online template letter to make a discrimination complaint about:

• age
• sexual orientation
• religion or belief
  

• Download 'Discrimination complaint template letter' (RTF, 45K)

You may be able to bring a claim to an Employment Tribunal if you feel you are at a disadvantage:

• because of age-related criteria for recruitment or promotion policies
• because you think you are suffering age discrimination