On 19 February 2025 the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) published a report, The Rights of Older People, following an inquiry which set out to examine the adequacy of the legal framework which is in place to protect older people.
The report concludes that ageism is widespread and culturally embedded in the UK. It suggests that older people are being failed by discrimination law and the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) because their protections are inadequate and rarely enforced.
The report recommends that the government should commission the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to review the effectiveness of protections against age discrimination provided by the Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010) and the PSED in England.
In particular, the report suggests, the EHRC should consider:
| • | The implications for older people’s rights, and the enforceability of those rights, of allowing objective justification of direct age discrimination, and the likely impacts of replacing objective justification with specific exceptions, if required. The report notes that this exceptional treatment of the protected characteristic of age contributes to a widely held perception that ageism is less serious and more socially acceptable than other forms of discrimination. |
| • | The extent to which the PSED in England effectively promotes progress on older people’s rights and whether more specific positive duties would drive progress. |
| • | The case for a strengthened “reasonable steps” duty on employers to prevent age discrimination. |
| • | Options to amend the EqA 2010 to better reflect the intersectional nature of age discrimination. This could include commencement of section 14 which would provide for combined discrimination on the basis of two protected characteristics. For example, whether an older woman is subjected to disadvantage/detriment because of the combination of the two characteristics. This is particularly apt in relation to post-menopausal women in the workplace. |
There are more people in older age groups in the UK than ever before and these proportions are expected to increase over the coming decades. There are currently 11 million people in England and Wales aged 65 or older and many people will work longer than ever past retirement age because of the inadequacy of the state pension provisions and because work gives purpose. It’s clear that more needs to be done to tackle ageism. The job market is hostile to anyone over the age of 50 so what hope is there of securing a new role if you are over 60? It’s a challenge.
Tackling the social acceptability of ageism is quite another matter than legislating to protect against age discrimination. Society has historically shunned older people in favour of youth. You only have to look at how the Conservative Government treated the elderly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Many age discrimination claims are not pursued in the civil courts or Employment Tribunals because the financial awards associated with age claims are limited to the financial loss suffered by the claimant. If someone is nearing retirement age (which will be determined by reference to their desire/need to continue to work rather than by reference to a set age) then claims may have little value unless there is a significant pension loss. This is most likely the reason we see so few age claims which again does little to address the social unacceptability of discriminating against the older (and wiser?)!
