Diversity officer for the institute Freda Line says that in the event of a recession, age discrimination rules would ‘make it more difficult for employers to dump wholesale loads of older workers’.

The organisation says that employees are often more aware of their rights than employers.

‘I’m not convinced that the government’s age positive campaign and the work of other organisations has really reached out into smaller businesses,’ she adds.

Despite the closer relationship that many small employers have with their staff, ‘organisations can be careless’ because of a lack of HR support, she explains.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the employment rate of people aged between 50 and the state retirement age rose from around 62 per cent to approximately 70 per cent between 1994 and 2004.