NI civil service age of retirement upped to 65

The age of retirement for staff in the Northern Ireland Civil Service has been extended from 60 to 65 as of October 4.

The decision means that staff who reached age 60 on or after 4 October will no longer be retired automatically, but will be given the option to remain in service up to a maximum age of 65, subject to the normal satisfactory performance and attendance requirements placed upon all staff.

However, the change is not retrospective and staff already retired did so under the terms and conditions of service that applied when they reached 60. Those staff are entitled to apply for re-employment through the normal recruitment process and, if successful, be able to work up until their 65th birthday.

Announcing the decision before the reintroduction of home rule, Finance and Personnel Minister Sean Farren said: “Raising the age maximum for compulsory retirement within the Civil Service allows staff in Northern Ireland greater freedom of choice in their careers by allowing them the opportunity to achieve job fulfilment and an appropriate work/life balance in the way that suits them best.”

The Minister said that the revised policy on retirement represents the culmination of considerable work on the subject by DFP officials and by members of the Review Team set up by Lord Ouseley to examine working practices in the Senior Civil Service.

Dr Farren said that considerable research had gone into the effects on compositional change that such a change in policy might have before any final decision had been taken: “This has been a complex issue that has needed to address a wide range of business and legal issues, including: national and international trends; comparisons with other public and private sector organisations; the demographic and labour market factors in Northern Ireland; NICS profiles and compositional considerations, and legal issues and costs.

The potential impact on compositional change in the Senior Civil Service was the subject of particular attention by the Ouseley Review Team. Their conclusion, based on detailed statistical analysis, was that there was no reason to expect that the pace of compositional change would be affected to any significant degree.

(GMcG)