Imposing Retirement Age on Older Workers Hurts Economy
31/05/2010 6:29
on: Economy, Great Legal Resources Tips, Health + More
The continued implementation of the Default Retirement Age policy is detrimental to the country’s economy. This is the message being made public by Age UK Charity in its latest report. The report states that forcing older workers to retire led to a loss of nearly £3.5bn in terms of economic output in the past year in
The Conservative and Labour party have both been unable to bring an end to forced retirement, even though all the political parties have vowed to take action against this issue.
Age UK Charity Director Michelle Mitchell said that the policy of Default Retirement is not fair by any means. She says that this an old policy that has no relevance to the modern times. She also stressed that this policy is adversely affecting the economy by leading to a reduction in efficient, skilled labour. The loss of taxes from these newly retired members of the society is also a significant blow to the financials of the country .
When surveyed, nine out of ten older workers were found to be against forced retirement and wanted it to be abolished. The workers believe that the political parties must now take action instead of merely giving reassurances.
Dr Ros Altmann, a governor of the London School of Economics and an independent pensions expert, believes that forced retirement is troublesome for the economy. She points out that forced retirement causes people to have low purchasing power and thus spend less, which invariably affects the economy. She has said that by allowing elderly people who are physically capable and willing to work to continue as part of the workforce these issues can be sorted out.
In 2009, about 120,000 older workers lost their jobs owing to forced retirement. It led to a loss of £3.5bn of economic output, including a loss of £2bn earnings for the workers.
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