The House of Lords focusses on age – News – agediscrimination.info

Some of the difficulties with the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 have been raised in a House of Lords debate on 25 October 2006.

Baroness Howe of Idlicote questioned the effect of the Regulations on the provision of insured health benefits for employees. The Employers Forum on Age has recently urged the government to consider amending the Regulations to allow the fixing of an upper age limit for coverage under such policies.

There is a widely held concern that, as a result of the expected difficulties in justifying such age limits, many employers will not be able to continue to offer the benefits. Baroness Howe asked the government to give sympathetic consideration to the EFA’s proposals for amendments. Lord Sainsbury of Turville, a DTI Minister emphasised that the Regulations had been issued after a great deal of consultation and the government should wait to see how they worked in practice.

Lord Lester of Herne Hill reiterated the need helpful guidance on issues such as insured benefits and also redundancy, pensions and government-funded training schemes. In particular he asked whether the government would be prepared to give guidance on objective justification.

In addition to its request for amendments to the Regulations, the EFA has asked the government to provide guidance on insured benefits, similar to the DTI guidance document “the impact of Age Regulations on pensions schemes”.

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