Retirement Age – Women Born in December 1953

If you were born in 1953 then it can be very confusing to try and work out your retirement age – i.e. the age at which you are able to draw your State pension benefits in the UK.

Starting with those born in November 1953, the State retirement age was increased to 65 for women (but in fact only those who were actually born on 6th November 1953 have a retirement age of exactly 65). Then the retirement age starts increasing until it gets to 66 quite rapidly.

For those born in December 1953 there are two different retirement dates as follows:

For women who were born between 1st and 5th December 1953 (inclusive), their retirement date is 6th November 2018.

For women who were born between 6th and 31st December 1953 (inclusive), their retirement date is 6 March 2019. (This is also the retirement date for those women who were born between 1st and 5th January 1954 inclusive).

Therefore anyone who was born in December 1953 will be either 64 years and 11 months or 65 years and 2 or 3 months depending on when in the month they were born. The difference between a woman who was born on 5th December and a woman who was born on 6th December is a 4 month increase in their retirement date.

This is a really sharp increase over a matter of a couple of days and it is not surprising that a lot of people are confused about when they are able to draw their State pension.

Check out how you can find out how much State pension you are likely to receive and how to claim it here.