Would you like to knock 20 years off your birth date?
EMILE Ratelband, a 69-year-old motivational speaker from the Netherlands has applied to the Dutch courts to change his date of birth from March 1949 to March 1969.
Mr Ratelband claims he “identifies” as being 20 years younger than his birth age and that his doctor says he has a biological age of 45.
Being 69 rather than 49 impacts his ability to get a mortgage, a job and a date on Tinder, says Mr Ratelband.
In what has been variously described as provocative, mediaseeking or transphobic, Mr Ratelband argues that identifying as 20 years younger is the same as transgender people identifying as a different sex to their birth sex.
It is this comment that has led to allegations of transphobia, since gender dysphoria is a condition, whereas wanting to be younger is not.
But does he have a point that being 69 impacts on getting a job?
Age discrimination legislation has not been around that long.
It was only from October 1, 2006 that it became unlawful in England and Wales to discriminate against someone on the grounds of their age.
This contrasts with sex and race discrimination legislation, which were introduced in 1975 and 1976 respectively.
The default retirement age of 65 was only abolished on October 1, 2011, although I regularly come across both employers and employees who are still unaware of this and believe that it is lawful to require retirement at 65.
In other words, we’ve got a long track record of writing people off by the age of 65 and not much time has passed since it became unlawful to do so.
Attitudes are changing, though, and rapidly.
In 2012, research compiled over 2010-11 was released by the Department for Work and Pensions which showed that, on average, the age at which people ceased to be young was 41 and the age at which they were considered old was 59. Research by YouGov earlier this year revealed that now most people in Britain believe 48 is middle-aged and 70 the age at which someone becomes old.
Even so, there is still a lingering attitude that people become less capable as they age. Rather than try to change their birth dates like Mr Ratelband, some people resort to cosmetic surgery, both surgical and non-surgical involving fillers and Botox.
Cosmetic surgeon Dr Angelica Kavouni coined the phrase “the career facelift” to describe the various processes that both men and women in their 50s and 60s undertake to “freshen their looks” and prolong their careers. The trick, apparently, is not to shave 20 years off your age, but to stay in a “no-age” zone for as long as possible.
Whatever the aesthetics of age, the economic reality is that older people need to be retained in the workforce.
By 2020 over-50s will comprise almost one third of the working-age population and almost half the adult population.
In 2017 the Business Champion for Older Workers declared a target of a million more older people in work by 2022.
The employment rate for people aged 50-69 in 2017 was 59% and the Business Champion for Older Workers said this must increase to 66% by 2022 if the UK is to start addressing its skills gap. By 2022, 14.5m more jobs will be created but only seven million younger workers will enter the workforce – leaving 7.5m roles unfilled.
In my view, Mr Ratelband is going about things the wrong way. The challenge is not to change your age, but to change people’s attitude towards age.