The Government is to legislate to allow civil servants who are currently obliged to retire at age 65 to opt to stay in work longer. Once enacted, the law will give civil servants recruited before 1st April 2004 the option to retire at any time up to age 70.
 
The new arrangements will benefit civil servants who must currently retire at 65, but who depend on the state old age pension for part of their retirement income. They have faced a problem since the state pension age was increased from 65 to 66.
 
Civil servants recruited after 1st April 2004 are not affected because they either have a retirement age of 70 already, or they have no compulsory retirement age.