There’s plenty of media coverage on retirement and pensions, but it is not always clear which issues are subject to debate and which ones are actually happening.

Want to work past age 65?

The government has confirmed that the default retirement age of 65 will be abolished from 1 October 2011. Currently, an employer can lawfully retire an employee aged 65 (or below if it is normal practice for the job) provided a set procedure is followed, including giving at least six months' notice of retirement to the employee. This deadline passed on 31 March 2011.

Under the changes, the last day employees can be compulsorily retired using the old procedure will be 30 September 2011.

This change applies to all Employers, but there are some exceptions. If an Employer can ‘objectively justify’ having a lower retirement age then they can continue to retire people under a compulsory system. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills gives air traffic controllers and police officers as examples of where this might be the case.

For all other Employers there are new procedures for to follow, including guidance on managing older workers. These can be found on at www.acas.org.uk.

These changes do not affect employees' state pension age and entitlements, which may well be different from the age at which they retire.

Reaching State Pension Age may take longer The government is discussing new proposals for increasing State Pension age. Any changes to the timetable needs approval of Parliament, but what is being discussed?

The new proposals would see women’s State Pension age increase more quickly to 65 between April 2016 and November 2018.

It is called ‘State Pension Equalisation’ and it affects women born between 6 April 1953 and 5 April 1960.

From December 2018 the State Pension age for both men and women would start to increase to reach 66 by April 2020. The government is also considering the timetable for future increases to the State Pension age from 66 to 68.

For more information see www.direct.gov.uk and type in ‘Calculating your state pension age’ in the search this site box, and for the proposed new timetable yet to be approved, type in 'proposed changes to state pension age' to get the timetable month by month.

Free, confidential advice and help is available on any aspect of this article as well as debt, benefits, employment, and any other problems.

You can contact the Grange or Windermere Citizens Advice Bureau by phone or in person. Call 015395 33100 / 015394 46464.