The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has confirmed that the default retirement age (DRA) of 65 is to be "consigned to history", allowing IT contractors to work as long as they wish.

While some groups, such as the Confederation of British Industry, have criticised the speed of the government's implementation of this measure, others claim that employer concerns over the move are without foundation.

Helen Barnes, principal research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies, says that scrapping the DRA and allowing IT contractors and other workers to earn an income in their older years is clearly a positive situation.

She goes on to say that employers' concerns that they will be left with people who are physically not up to the job are not an issue because most workers are realistic about what they can and can't do.

"If people aren't up to the job, unless there's some very dire situation where financially they've backed themselves into a corner, most people are going to leave themselves anyway," Ms Barnes concluded.