A reform the Tories should shout about

As of today, you can’t fire someone just for turning 65. The government has delivered its promise to scrap the Default Retirement Age (DRA), introduced by Labour in 2006 as a caveat to otherwise laudable equality legislation. This ends the practice of forced retirement regardless of someone’s ability to work. Killing it is one of the best things the coalition has done and the Tories should be making more of as they gather in Manchester.

Of course, there will be some transition difficulties from scrapping (DRA), but they’re likely to be minor. Claims that older workers sticking around in their jobs will squeeze out the young are too simplistic – our jobs market isn’t ‘one in, one out’. Instead, higher employment rates mean higher tax revenues, more disposable income, and a healthier economy. Ironically, the biggest short-term losers might not be younger workers, but those in their later careers sitting directly under 65 year old colleagues, waiting in line for promotion.