State Pension Age Increases- Will I be Affected?

For anyone who is keeping an eye on the State Pension age review they will be interested to hear that John Cridland’s report on the Review in State Pension Ages was published today by the government. The Pensions Act 2014 requires that State Pension ages are reviewed in every parliament and this review was due to report by May 2017.

Mr Cridland’s report also coincided with a review by the Government Actuaries Department (GAD) which was due to look at life expectancy and what percentage of people’s lives they would spend in retirement, therefore being more facts and figures based rather than taking into account other factors. The two reports will be taken into consideration by the government in any future legislative change in State Pension ages.

The benchmark guide that was used for both reports was the supposition that people should spend up to one third of their lives in retirement and with the increase in life expectancy this would obviously mean an increase in the State Pension age at some point. However, in order to decide on that point, various assumptions and predictions in life expectancy over the current decades would need to be made.

According to the State Pension age timetable issued by the Department for Work and Pensions in 2013:

The Government is not planning to revise the existing timetables for the equalisation of State Pension age to 65 or the rise in the State Pension age to 66 or 67. However the timetable for the increase in the State Pension age from 67 to 68 could change as a result of the review.

This means that anyone born before 6 March 1961 will not have their State Pension age changed any further. Anyone born after this date (as long as they are given at least 10 years notice) could have their retirement age increased. So any changes will only affect those retiring after 2028 at the earliest (but this is unlikely to be until much later according to the Cridland report).

The Cridland report advises that the increase in State Pension age from 67 to 68 is brought forward to 2037-39. Currently legislation is in place for the retirement age to be increased to 68 for those who were born after 5 April 1977 with a staggered increase from 67 to 68 for those born between 6 April 1977 and 5th April 1978.

With the changes proposed in the Cridland report this may now apply to people who were born after 1971 with a possible staggered increase for those born between 1970 and 1971*. So those people who are currently in their late 40s or below may be affected by an increase in their State Pension age.

The report also advises that further increases to the State Pension age are only effected no more often than every 10 years.

The report from the GAD proposes even earlier increases to the State Pension age and in theory the increase could happen at any time after 2028 but this is less likely to happen (we hope). The GAD report also proposes that anyone aged 30 or below (i.e. those born after 1988 as legislation will likely not happen or at least come into force next year) should have a State pension age of 70. With life expectancy increases this proposal could indeed become a reality, if not now, then possibly at a later date.

Summary

So if you are wondering if you are affected by the proposal in increases to the State Pension age then you may well be affected if you were born after 6th April 1970 and it is possible (but we believe much less likely) you will be affected if you were born after 5th April 1961.

However, these are currently just proposals and the government will need to review both reports and decide on any changes they wish to make before introducing any legislation which will likely not be law until at least 2018.

There will be another review of State Pension ages due in 2023 and so it is possible that any further changes to the State Pension age that go beyond age 68 will not be made until after this review when more recent figures on life expectancy are available.

*based on previous staggered increases