Age discrimination

Age discrimination (also called ageism) can have a huge impact on people’s lives. Being discriminated against because of your age, can mean you get lower quality treatment, information or services. There are many areas of life in which people can experience age-related discrimination, including employment, health care and consumer services.

Types of age discrimination

Age discrimination can take many forms but is broadly defined as when someone is ‘treated less favourably on the basis of age’. There are four defined types of discrimination:

Direct discrimination – openly treating someone less favourably because of their age.
Indirect discrimination – having a policy or practice which puts people at a disadvantage compared with other people because of their age. For example, having a policy that restricts recruitment of new employees to ‘recent university graduates’.
Harassment – when a person feels intimidated, humiliated or offended by another person’s because of their age. For example, someone makes jokes about a person’s age, which they find offensive in the workplace.
Victimisation – being treated unfairly as a result of making a complaint of age discrimination, or for giving evidence when somebody else complains of age discrimination.

The Equality Act

The Equality Act came into force on 1 October 2010. The Equality Act is a law which protects you from discrimination. It aims to prevent people from being treated differently or unfairly on the basis of specific characteristics including

age,
race
sex
gender reassignment
disability
religion or belief
sexual orientation
marriage or civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity

Age discrimination in the workplace

Under the Equality Act 2010, you are protected from age discrimination in your employment including:

recruitment
employment terms and conditions
promotions and transfers
training
dismissals

Most employers are not allowed to tell you when you must retire (known as a default retirement age). It is illegal for your employer to do this (known as a ‘forced retirement notice’) under the Equality Act.

The Equality Act allows age discrimination in some situations. This is called ‘objectively justified’ age discrimination and is when the employer can prove they have a good reason. For example, an employer may have an age limit on a job set by another law because very high levels of physical fitness are needed.

If you feel like you have experienced discrimination in the workplace, you should first follow your employer’s grievance procedure. If this isn’t successful, you may want to submit a claim to the employment tribunal, however this must be done within three months of the incident.

Age Friendly Workplaces

Centre for Ageing Better has an Age Friendly Employer pledge

Work/Redefined offer training and accreditation to businesses and organisations to gain Age-Inclusive Accreditation

WorkingWise offer an age inclusive Top Employer Charter. Employers can sign up for free and commit to taking age inclusive actions for current and future staff.

Age discrimination in health and social care

Health and social care professionals can make decisions about the care and treatment that you may get based on your age, in some cases this will be appropriate.

The Equality Act means that all people, regardless of their age, should receive a personal, fair and diverse service, based on their individual needs, not their age.

Examples of discrimination within a healthcare setting might include:

making assumptions about whether an older or younger patient should be referred for treatment based only on their age, rather than on the individual need and fitness level
not referring retired people for a treatment that is normally for working age adults
not considering the wellbeing or dignity of older or younger people

The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) provide support and information to patients, their families and carers if they have any concerns about the care they receive from any health care service.

Age discrimination in consumer products and services

Age discrimination can happen in consumer services such as supermarkets, restaurants, banks and other businesses. For example:

seeing a leaflet or advert that discriminates against older people
being treated badly and talked to using ageist language in a shop
refused by an insurance company because of your age.

The Equality Act covers providers of goods and services, including shops, hotels, and insurers. This means you should not be treated unfairly because of your age. However there are some examples where it is ok to use positive age discrimination for consumer services.

Some examples include:

age-related holidays offered for people aged over 50 or 18-30 year olds only
discounts in shops for people aged over 65
social or leisure clubs for people of specific ages only.

These examples are all lawful because age-related concessions and age-specific services can be exempt under the Equality Act.

There is also an exemption for financial services. This means that insurers can take age into account for calculating a premium, or a bank could refuse a financial product to a customer because of their age. However, their decision must be based on reliable and relevant information, rather than just making a general assumption based on age.

How to complain about a consumer product or service

If you feel you have been discriminated against and would like to complain about an advertisement, contact the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regarding adverts in the press, direct mail, posters, and leaflets.

To complain about television or radio adverts, contact Ofcom.

To report a local business to Trading Standards, you should contact Citizens Advice Newcastle.

Complaints about financial organisations, insurers and banks can be taken to the Financial Ombudsman, which can investigate complaints that haven’t been resolved. You can only go to the Ombudsman when you have first tried to resolve the matter through the organisation’s complaints process first.

Read our article on Your Consumer Rights for more information.

Other Useful Information

Centre For Ageing Better have an age positive image library to help you use age positive photos in your resources.

Read our article on Advocacy for information on help with getting your voice heard.

Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) helpline offers 24 hour free advice and guidance on rights at work and employment law

Equally Ours contains information about voluntary, statutory or umbrella organisations working on equality and human rights issues

Civil Legal Advice offers specialist advice to those on a lower income or benefits.

GROW-Good Recruitment for Older Workers guide co-created by Recruitment and Employment Confederation, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and Centre for Ageing Better

Age without Limits have resources to help challenge ageism in every day situations and conversations

The information on this website is for general guidance on your rights and responsibilities and is not legal advice. If you need more details on your rights, or legal advice about what action to take, please contact an adviser or solicitor.

Last updated: September 6, 2024