Age discrimination 'rooted' in society, Government finds

Old age officially begins when people reach the age of 54 and youth ends when people turn 32, a Government survey has found. ...

Steve Webb, the Pensions Minister, said that attitudes towards age must change due to Britain’s rapidly ageing population.

With the retirement age for men and women reaching 66 by 2020, the minister said that people must alter their perceptions of when people become ‘old’.

“The idea that we are ‘old’ at 59 belongs in the era of Downton Abbey – not in 2012,” said Mr Webb.