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Planning for retirement

You will normally agree with your employer at what date you will retire. You can get lots of information to help you plan for your retirement in the over 50s section.

• Retirement and pensions (Over 50s section)

Retirement age

Retirement is when you, as an employee, come to the end of a period of work and leave the organisation employing you, usually on the grounds of age. For employment rights purposes, your ‘normal retirement age’ is the age when people doing your job normally retire (which must apply equally to men and women). If you don’t have a normal retirement age there is a default age of 65.

In order to have a normal retirement age that is under the age of 65, your employer must be able to ‘objectively justify’ the age. This means that the age is a ‘proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’. In the case of retirement, your employer may be able to show that for example the lower age is needed for health and safety requirements that cannot be achieved in any other way. However, it will be difficult for an employer to justify a retirement age below 65. Your employer will not be able to simply make assertions; evidence will be needed.

Can you be forced to retire?

The law on age discrimination is designed to encourage your employer to only retire you if it is appropriate and necessary to do so. However, your employer does have the right to retire you at your normal retirement age (or the default retirement age of 65) as long as they follow the correct procedure.

The procedure includes:

• a requirement that your employer gives you at least six months notice of your retirement date
• your right to request to work past your retirement date, and your employer having a duty to consider such a request

Your employer is not obliged to retire you as soon as you reach your normal retirement age (or 65).

If your employer retires you before your normal retirement age (or 65), this may amount to age discrimination and unfair dismissal.

• Find out more about age discrimination
• Unfair dismissal - read more

Personalised guidance

You can get personalised guidance on the retirement procedure. You will get a personalised statement explaining how the retirement procedure affects you, whether your employer has followed it correctly and when you can make a request to work past your retirement date.

• Get personalised guidance on the retirement procedure

Retiring from a job: find out more

• Retiring from a job: requesting to work past retirement