Abolition of Default Retirement Age Will Hit Small Firms, Says IoD

On 27 September 2010, the Institute of Directors (IoD) published a paper stating that the proposed abolition of the Default Retirement Age (DRA) would have a significant negative impact on employers, particularly small firms. In order to support people who want to work past 65, the IoD argues that a better option would be to raise the DRA progressively in line with life expectancy. An obvious first step would be to raise it to 68. The paper's key points include the following:

• increased frequency of dismissal of underperforming employees over the age of 65 will demoralise all parties to the dismissal process;
• increased numbers of dismissals will divert management time away from growing businesses and jobs; and
• small firms, lacking HR support, would feel under pressure to live with underperforming staff aged over 65.

The paper can be viewed here: https://www.iod.com/home/mainwebsite/Resources/Document/retirement_age_1009.pdf