WELLBEING: Royal Mail must update its dementia policy as the cost-of-living crisis fuels a record number of economically active older workers, CWU delegates have said.

A motion passed at the union’s conference in Bournemouth today warned that the abolition of the default retirement age in 2011 combined with rising pension ages are leading to an increase in over-65s at work, which topped 1.5 million in June 2023.

Newcastle delegate Stephen Hammall said that dementia is a disability and is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, but that “employers don’t always recognise dementia as a disability with the rights and responsibilities that go along with it.”