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
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