Retirement age of employment contract

[LOVELYDOVEY05]

Mine says the normal retirement age is 65.
Can they enforce this?

No. Retirement is entirely voluntary now and has been so for around 14 years

There is no default retirement age anymore, and in most cases a compulsory retirement age in an employment contract will not be enforceable.

However it is possible for a retirement age to be enforceable if the employer can objectively justify it. Justifying it is difficult so most employers don’t attempt it, but some do.

Thanks for your advice. There were a couple of people working
there until age 75 and the employer seems positive towards older
people in general so I wonder why they have put it in their contract?

Possibly you can claim your full occupational pension from 65 and anything below that is classed as early retirement. That's the case for me despite my state pension age being 68.

Might it be a very old template contract and they never bothered taking it out?

It’s unlikely they’d be able to justify it- that’s difficult at the best of times but in circumstances where they clearly don’t always enforce it, as they have workers well over that age, it’s vanishingly unlikely.

No. The contract needs to be changed. It’s not correct.

Depends on the industry.

@Popjam

Depends on the industry.

What industries have compulsory retirement then? There may be some roles where very occasionally it could be justified but I think that'd be more likely on health grounds than age grounds. There are some fit and healthy people above the age of 65... why would they be less entitled to work than somebody younger, who may be in poorer health?

@cloudscanlooklikesheep

Fire service
Commercial pilots
Jobs that require certain physical abilities