The Equality Authority today welcomed a finding of age discrimination in a case taken under the Equal Status Acts. An Equality Officer of the Equality Tribunal found that Ulster Bank had discriminated against the complainant. Ms. Fahey, in refusing her application for a car loan because she was over 65 years of age. Ms.Fahey was awarded €2000 in compensation for the upset and humiliation experienced. Ms.Fahey was supported in her case by the Equality Authority.
Ms. Fahey telephoned the Ulster Bank in Maynooth on 15th February 2005 to enquire about taking out a car loan of €6000. She was aged 70 years at the time. She had just finished repaying her previous car loan to a finance company. She had been a customer of the Maynooth branch of Ulster Bank for the previous ten years and had money on deposit in her account. She had no other borrowings with Ulster Bank and her pension was paid directly into her account with the bank. She claimed that she was informed by a bank official that the branch manager had stated that it was bank policy not to grant loans to anybody over the age of 65 years. She then had to contact the car dealership where she had earlier put down a deposit on a new car in order to cancel the purchase.
Ulster Bank denied that Ms.Fahey was informed by any of its officials that it operated a policy of not affording loans to persons over 65 years of age. The Equality Officer found that Ms. Fahey gave a more accurate account of the telephone conversation of 15th February 2005. He was satisfied that Ms.Fahey was left in no doubt following the telephone conversation that her application for a car loan was refused by Ulster Bank on the basis that she was over 65 years of age. The Equality Officer found that the respondent did not adhere to its stated loan application procedures in this case and Ms. Fahey was not invited for an interview to discuss her application. He found that Ulster Bank had discriminated against Ms.Fahey on the age ground under the Equal Status Acts.
Niall Crowley, Chief Executive Officer of the Equality Authority, stated “this case draws attention to the ageism experienced by older people in our society and, in particular, to the manner in which age limits are used to exclude older people and diminish their participation in society. Allegations of discrimination on the basis of age limits are a significant feature in the casefiles of the Equality Authority. Age limits are a significant barrier to the participation of older people in employment and to their access to a range of services including those of financial institutions”. He added that “this case presents a challenge to financial institutions to review their policies and practices so as to eliminate any discrimination under the Equal Status Acts. Allegations of discrimination by financial institutions accounted for 10% of Equality Authority casefiles under the Equal Status Acts in 2007 (33 out of 328 casefiles).This is the sector with the highest level of such allegations, outside of the public sector”.
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