SIR – Employers are right to be concerned at new rules to prevent them from automatically terminating staff contracts of employment at state pension age if felt necessary, and these ought to be delayed if not cancelled in such uncertain times.

Age and experience are vital qualities in every field of endeavour, and in 1999, the year of the great storm in France.

I set off on Boxing Day for Dover with three deliveries in France to do – viz Strasbourg, Paris and Lyon, about a 2,000-mile round trip, completed in four days of hard driving – easy.

Then I was aged 56 and a self-employed haulier. By age 60 I knew it was time to call it a day and have enjoyed lots of rest ever since.

Why people want to carry on working indefinitely I fail to understand, especially when there are benefits like pension credits, etc, for those entitled, although I had made my own provision for early retirement.

However, one group which might benefit from compulsory retirement at 65 are politicians, both local and national, as there seems to be too many geriatrics about both on councils and at Westminster, even in the coalition cabinet.

D S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Leeds