Age discrimination

Age discrimination is when you are treated differently because of your age in one of the situations that are covered by the Equality Act.

The Equality Act has some exceptions. For example, students are not protected from age discrimination at school.

The treatment could be a one-off action or as a result of a rule or policy based on age. It doesn’t have to be intentional to be unlawful.

There are some circumstances when being treated differently due to age is lawful, explained below.

The Equality Act 2010 says that you must not be discriminated against because:

• you are (or are not) a certain age or in a certain age group
• someone thinks you are (or are not) a specific age or age group, this is known as discrimination by perception
• you are connected to someone of a specific age or age group, this is known as discrimination by association

Age groups can be quite wide (for example, ‘people under 50’ or 'under 18s'). They can also be quite specific (for example, ‘people in their mid-40s’). Terms such as ‘young person’ and ‘youthful’ or ‘elderly’ and ‘pensioner’ can also indicate an age group.

There are four main types of age discrimination.

Direct discrimination

Direct discrimination happens when someone treats you worse than another person in a similar situation because of your age.

Direct age discrimination is permitted provided that the organisation or employer can show that there is a good reason for the discrimination.

This is known as objective justification.

Indirect discrimination

Indirect discrimination happens when an organisation has a particular policy or way of working that applies to everyone but which puts people of your age group at a disadvantage.

Like direct age discrimination, indirect age discrimination can be permitted if the organisation or employer is able to show that there is a good reason for the policy. This is known as objective justification.

Harassment

Harassment occurs when someone makes you feel humiliated, offended or degraded.

Harassment can never be justified. However, if an organisation or employer can show it did everything it could to prevent people who work for it from behaving like that, you will not be able to make a claim for harassment against it, although you could make a claim against the harasser.

Victimisation

Victimisation is when you are treated badly because you have made a complaint of age discrimination under the Equality Act. It can also occur if you are supporting someone who has made a complaint of age discrimination.

A difference in treatment may be lawful if:

• belonging to a particular age group is essential for a job: this is called an occupational requirement. For example, a film company making a film of Oliver Twist may lawfully hire a young boy to play Oliver
• an organisation is taking positive action to encourage or develop people in an age group that is under-represented or disadvantaged in a role or activity
• your employer has set a compulsory retirement age that it can clearly justify in respect of your role: this is known as objective justification
• the circumstances fall under one of the exceptions to the Equality Act that allow organisations to provide different treatment in employment or services based on age
• a service provider is making age-related concessions and benefits. For example, a cinema can offer over 60s cheap tickets and special screenings or a GP can offer flu jabs to over 65s
• the financial services sector (e.g. banks, building societies and insurance companies) is using age limits when deciding what services to offer. For example, a high street bank offers a ‘silver saver’ account for customers over 60, with higher interest rates. However, if they are using age to assess risk, for example only providing car insurance up to age 75 or charging more for insurance as a customer gets older, they would need up to date evidence from a reliable source, which shows that people over a certain age are a greater risk when driving