What does the Equality Act really mean for age?
The Equality Act has helped reshape expectations about fairness, inclusion and equal treatment in the UK. It provides essential protections against discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and helps create a framework for a fairer society. It supports more equal participation in employment, education, housing, public services and everyday life.
For many people, these protections are transformative. The right to reasonable adjustments for Disabled employees. Employers must take steps to prevent unlawful discrimination. Service providers and public bodies are expected to consider the needs of diverse communities. Together, these duties and protections help promote inclusion and equal opportunity.
Yet while the Equality Act is a significant and important tool for advancing equality, there are important gaps in the protection it offers on age. Our new report, Left Out by the Law, explores these gaps and what needs to be done to address them writes Jemma Mouland, our Deputy Director of Ageism & Inequality.
The exception within equality law
Last year, we pulled together a range of experts to discuss how age is treated differently in the law, why this matters and what could be done to make the protections stronger. This was inspired by the Women and Equalities Committee inquiry into the rights of older people, which highlighted how ageism is deeply embedded in UK society, including in how the law operates.
Put simply, unlike other forms of discrimination, some types of age discrimination can be lawful if it can be ‘objectively justified’ – in other words, you can be treated differently because of your age if this treatment pursues a legitimate aim and is proportionate.
The result is a legal framework that sends mixed messages. On one hand, it recognises age discrimination as harmful. On the other, it treats age discrimination as more acceptable, or easier to justify than other forms of discrimination.
More than a legal issue
As our report explores, this matters because this different treatment can make it much harder to challenge discriminatory practice. It also makes it hard to understand your own rights. The result is that very few age discrimination cases are ever progressed, despite age discrimination being widely experienced.
But it also matters because laws do more than regulate behaviour. They reflect social values and help shape public understanding of what is fair, normal and acceptable.
The ability to justify age discrimination can reinforce an underlying assumption that decisions based on age are inherently reasonable.
Yet many age-based decisions are built on generalisations rather than individual circumstances. They’re based on a flawed assumption that someone’s age determines their value, their capabilities or their rights. When these assumptions go unchallenged, they limit people's opportunities and choices.
Time for a new conversation
Addressing these issues does not necessarily mean treating age exactly the same as every other protected characteristic. But it does mean asking harder questions about why age is given a different status in law, whether existing exemptions remain justified, and whose interests are served by maintaining them in their current form.
As the UK population ages, these questions become increasingly important. More of us will spend longer lives in work, in our communities and in later life. The assumptions embedded in our institutions today will shape the opportunities available to millions of people tomorrow.
Twenty years on from the introduction of age discrimination legislation, we must celebrate the protections that have been achieved. But we should also recognise where the law falls short.
Tackling ageism is not simply about preventing unfair treatment. It is about challenging the assumptions that restrict people's choices, undermine their autonomy and prevent them from participating in society on equal terms.
And if we are serious about creating a society in which everyone can age well, those assumptions cannot remain hidden in plain sight.
