Organisations that want to target younger candidates, whether because managers fear older candidates who might have more skills and abilities than themselves or because the organisation wants to impose hours and terms that it knows would not be acceptable to older candidates continue to discriminate in this way even three years after the legislation making this unlawful was introduced. 

These businesses use agencies to do their dirty work.  These agencies often have no other skill than to discriminate on behalf of their client.  This discrimination is not just on grounds of age but can include sex and race discrimination as well.  What do you think is meant by the requirement for “red brick university”; surely this is meant to exclude any candidate who was not born in the UK?  The staff of these organisations are merely sales people who have no accountancy background or training and who simply select candidates based on their age or perceived background to match their client’s discriminatory requirements.  This is no way to recruit finance staff!