A European court adviser has rejected a challenge from Age Concern to the rights of employers to make people retire at 65. The Advocate-general, a senior legal advisor to the European Court of Justice, backed current rules – however the decision is not binding.

Age Concern is challenging UK laws established in 2006, which have allowed the forcing of workers to retire at 65.

There are currently 260 people in the UK with cases at employment tribunals which depend on the European Court’s ultimate decision.

Most of these people fell they have be discriminated against for their age, and are now struggling financially because they no longer have a steady income.

Campaigners believe that have a working age limit is discriminatory, and say that the case is likely to run for some time. The Advocate-general’s view could influence the judges who are expected to give their ruling in the case just before Christmas.

If the judges find in the campaigners’ favour, the case could then return for a final hearing in the British courts.

The employer’s organisation the CBI has argued that a normal retirement age of 65 is an essential management tool. It also added that employees can ask to work beyond that age.

The organisation believes that employers have a duty to consider these requests, and says that this system has proved to be a success.

The case is being brought by Heyday – an offshoot of Age Concern, and was prompted by a survey of 60,000 people, of which 80 percent believed the current rules were unfair.

Ailsa Olgive, Heydays’s director, said that the current rules were “costing good workers their jobs”.

“Denying people work because of their date of birth is grossly unfair, and in these tough times we expect more people will need to carry on working into ‘retirement’ in order to make ends meet,” she said.

“More than a million people are already working past state pension age and they are the fastest growing group in the workforce.”