You probably noted last week that the government are pressing ahead with the scrapping of the Default Retirement Age (DRA). What may be more surprising is that the timetable remains unaltered, and this seems likely to happen in 2011! For a general overview please see the following link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12177927
Now this has huge implications for UK employers, and at the moment most of the press is (rightly) focusing on actual employment law issues for employers.
However, it won’t be long until the benefits industry and magazines catch up, as this issue has potentially major implications for benefit provision in the UK. Those who attended our seminars in October last year will remember that I spoke on this issue from a benefits perspective, and highlighted some of the concerns then.
So what’s the issue on benefits? Well, there is a rumour going around that the older you are, the more likely you are to suffer illness, or indeed death. This rumour is backed up by centuries of proof, and many actuarial tables, so I’m not about to go against this received wisdom.
It therefore follows that covering older employees for benefits, particularly where an element of insurance is key, is going to become problematical.
We have asked three of our domain experts (Group Risk, Group Medical and Pensions) to comment on this, and I will post their comments on the blog over the next few days. We will also produce a more formal technical bulletin on this subject, and will of course update this as progress is made.
This one is going to run and run I suspect, so expect to see a lot more about this on the blog over the coming months.
Best regards
Steve
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