Fitness for work and the aging workforce: medical assessment as a de facto mechanism of retirement in the United Kingdom after the abolition of the default retirement age
Alida Langlois · 2026
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Description
Alida Langlois argues this 2026 review's thesis: fitness-for-work tests have quietly become Britain's retirement mechanism. The fitness judgment was designed for a young workforce leaving at a fixed age. Britain scrapped that default retirement age in 2011, leaving health-based capability as a main lawful route to end an older worker's job. The review traces the concept's roots and stress-tests it against an aging workforce.
Aging is gradual and individual, a poor fit for a yes-no medical verdict. Screening all older workers is impractical, and using age as the trigger risks unlawful discrimination. An unfit verdict without adjustments functions as an exit door, and adjustment duties protect only disability, not age. Langlois warns the tool answers questions it was never built for.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Alida Langlois |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 40 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |