Retirement Age – Born in 1969

Last updated on April 10th, 2023

When Can I Retire?

Were you were born in 1969 and you are wondering when you can retire?

Well it firstly depends on whether you are thinking about when you can take you personal or occupational pension benefits, or whether you are wondering when you can claim your state pension.

For non-state pension benefits, the minimum age at which you can start taking your money out is age 55 (apart from special situations like in serious ill health when other rules may apply). Although for some pensions you may not get penalised for taking benefits early so you may wish to wait as long as possible before claiming pension benefits.

Retire in 2036

If you are wondering when  you can claim your state pension, and you were born in 1969, then the answer is on your 67th birthday. So you will be able to retire in 2036. This was brought forward in the Pensions Act 2014 (previously it was only those born after 6th April 1969 who had a SPa of 69).

This looks unlikely to change to any higher age after the government published their conclusions to the Cridland report which only recommended to increase retirement ages for those born in the 70s and later.

The Labour party have stated that they do not want retirement ages to go any higher than 66 so if they get back in to power there is a chance that you will be able to retire sooner than that.

Theories Behind Increasing Retirement Ages

The government have said that they expect people to spend about a third of their lives in retirement, so if we are living longer then we should expect state pension ages to increase in line with this extended lifespan.

However, retirement ages can only increase at a maximum rate of once every 10 years and so there will likely be no more changes upwards for those born in the 60s.