My employer thinks I'm 10 years younger than I am

It is quite easy to fudge your age on a CV. Employers are not interested in what happened years ago and you can just put your qualifications without a date. Anyone who needs help with this PM me, I've done CVs for loads of people!

If you still have a copy of the form where you wrote 1951, you can prove you haven't cheated. You are not responsible for the headhunter's poor eyesight! Also, if you are doing a good job they should be happy to keep you on rather than have to go to the trouble of bringing in another new employee.

Anagram, Granyknot, Greatnan, vampirequeen: Thanks - I don't look my age (something I inherited from my father)

The birthdate? It all comes from a handwriting mistake. I wrote 1951 but the headhunter read it as 1961. So i just let it stay that way.

My new employer is really good and I didn't think it would be a problem informally - but you can't speak for somebody in a head office miles away

I'm not planning to retire until I'm 70

What age are you due to retire? You're going to hit problems when you no longer need to pay national insurance.

Could you risk admitting your age once you have started the job?

A160 I'm really impressed that you can get away with being mistaken for 10 years younger! And I'm also nosy as to how you 'let your employer think you are 10 years younger than you are'. . If you've been offered the job, they're stymied, I think even if they do subsequently find out you are older, they certainly wouldn't be able to get rid of you on that basis, you'd have a case for tribunal.

If you have to put the years you attended school or FE though, it's easy enough to work out your age.

There is no requirement to put your age on your CV. I believe it is now also frowned upon to put it in application forms.

janeainsworth: I'm all for employers satisfying themselves that their people are entitled to work in the UK. It's the use of the passport scan to find out the birth date by stealth that I'm highlighting. But thanks for your reply.

A160 Employers do have to satisfy themselves that employees are entitled to work in the UK and the penalties for not doing so are severe. They could be accused of discrimination if they didn't do this for all new employees.

Passport thing is pretty standard as employers can get prosecuted if they employ people without the right to work in UK. So they take a photocopy and bung it in file to prove they are checking. I think usually it is a case of - oh, standard UK issue, and don't look. I think the agism comes in at the CV stage though...
And there have been times, one recent, where a manager expressed doubt that someone around 60 would stay long. I usually point out that they should match applicants to the person spec. and that plenty of people these days work until they are in their late 60s.or beyond.
Good luck with the new job.

Thanks FlicketyB & JessM. For the past few years in my industry (design) headhunters have been asking for scans of your passport.

This is ostensibly for proof of UK citizenship and right to work in the UK - but I've long suspected it's to see your birth date.

My industry is very age sensitive and I often feel in the past three years I've not been shortlisted or gotten job because of my age.

Thanks

Some conscientious employers ask to see a passport to check you are a bona fide Uk citizen etc. I have often done this and never looked at the birth date. You are just focussed on what kind of passport.
I agree about pension scheme - is there one?
If it did come to light I guess all you can say is you have felt on a number of occasions that you have not got a job for reasons of agism. If they are keen to employ you they will almost certainly forgive !

1) Not unless you have to produce your birth certificate in order to join a pension scheme.

2) If he did it would be age discrimination.

Just remember ther Beetles were before your time (new age)