Age Concern Executive Director Claudette Fleming (pictured) has welcomed Government’s move to allow its employees to work past the normal retirement ages — and she called on the private sector to follow suit. She said an arbitrary retirement age was discriminatory and there was no law governing the private sector to retire people at a certain age — but company policies often forced people out before they were ready.

She said: “We would hope employers look at this seriously and consider ability as opposed to age when looking at whether someone is suitable to remain in the workforce.”

And she said arbitrary age limits raised the issue of human rights legislation to make sure people were not discriminated against.