Protections needed to tackle ‘pervasive ageism’, says MPs

‘Widespread’ and ‘culturally embedded’ ageism requires stronger legal protections against age discrimination and a strategy to address the challenges and opportunities posed by the UK’s ageing population, according to MPs.

A report by the Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) recommends the UK government assess the strategy in Wales, which has a commissioner for older people and a network of local authority older people’s champions in local authorities, with a view to replicating a similar framework in England.

It says existing age discrimination law and the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) are “failing older people” as protections are inadequate and rarely enforced. It is calling on the Government to commission and fund a wholesale review by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

MPs found clear evidence that ageist stereotyping is highly prevalent across the UK media and is a significant contributory factor to the normalisation of ageist attitudes. This includes portrayals of older people as frail, helpless or incompetent, or conversely as wealth-hoarding “boomers”.

Unlike the other eight protected characteristics in the Equality Act, age is treated differently because the law allows “objective justification” of direct age discrimination. For other protected characteristics (sex, disability, sexual orientation, etc), objective justification is only allowed in relation to indirect discrimination, which arises from policies that apply to everyone but disadvantage a group.

This means an employer is permitted to treat older individuals less favourably where it can justify a “proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.

The report called on the government to fund an EHRC review of the effectiveness of protections against age discrimination, including:

• the impacts of allowing objective justification of direct age discrimination
• the adequacy of the PSED and the case for more specific positive duties in England
• the case for a strengthened “reasonable steps” duty on employers to prevent age discrimination
• options to better reflect in the Equality Act the intersectional nature of age discrimination, including the enactment of section 14 on dual characteristics.

Labour MP Sarah Owen, chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, said: “The Committee’s report shows clearly that age discrimination is widespread in the UK and often minimised compared to other forms of discrimination. A comprehensive review of age discrimination law is a necessary step in tackling the UK’s pervasively ageist culture.

“The UK’s growing and increasingly diverse ageing population presents significant cross-departmental challenges and opportunities, so the lack of a government strategy on how to respond to these issues is concerning.”

Despite the rise in older age groups across the UK – with 11 million people in England and Wales aged 65 or older – the UK’s equalities framework omits a focus on demographic change and ageing, the WEC found.

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