The statutory retirement age is to be raised to 68 as the DWP raises the retirement age SEVEN years earlier

Under current legislation, the state retirement age would have been raised to 68 between 2044 and 2046 – but the government says it will follow recommendations in an independent review for an earlier raise

The statutory retirement age is to be raised to 68 – SEVEN years earlier than originally planned.

Under current rules, the state retirement age would have risen to 68 between 2044 and 2046 – but the government says it will follow recommendations in an independent review by John Cridland, former director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

The review says the retirement age should be raised to 68 seven years earlier, between 2037 and 2039.

Latest projections from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) say that the number of people over state pension age in the UK is expected to rise by a third by 2042, from 12.4 million to 16.9 million people of working age whose social security contributions funding the state pension are beginning to decline, reports Birmingham Live.

A government report explains: “In 1948, when the modern state pension was introduced, a 65-year-old could expect to live another 13½ years, or 23 percent, of his adult life, assuming adult life begins at age 20 in 1995, when the When changes were first passed to level the state retirement age, a 65-year-old could expect to live 18½ years, or 29 percent of his or her adult life 32 percent of their adult life when more legislation was introduced to raise the state retirement age.

“Longer lifespan is a triumph of improved health and standards of living. But an aging population also presents us with some profound challenges. This means that if we want to be fair to our children and ensure that our society can continue to provide for them adequately, of older people we must ensure that people, on average, spend an equal proportion of time past the statutory retirement age.

“The Government intends to follow the recommendation of John Cridland in his independent review to raise the state retirement age from 67 to 68 in 2037-39 and bring it forward by seven years from its current statutory date of 2044-46. This is the fair. It is also the responsible course of action.”

It says it will provide at least 10 years’ notice for people affected by new changes to their state retirement age. Mr Cridland recommended this “to provide reassurance to individuals and to allow ‘windows of stability’ in which the impact of any change can be monitored and action taken where necessary”.

Raising the retirement age to 68 in 2037-39 would save £74 billion by 2045-46 compared to the current state retirement age timeline, the Government has calculated.

The Government says: “The alternatives to controlling costs on this scale would be paying lower state pensions with inevitable implications for pensioner poverty, or requiring the working generation to pay an ever larger part of their income to support pensioners. Our schedule strikes the right balance.

“As life expectancy increases, those affected by this rate will spend, on average, longer on the state pension than those aged 65 and over have spent over the past 25 years, and on average will receive more on the state pension than they retire than previous generations.”

The government will conduct its next review of the state retirement age by July 2023, confirming proposed changes for raising the state retirement age to 68. The table below shows the planned increase in the retirement age.

How the changes affect you

So how do these changes affect when you can claim a pension? Here are the differences by date of birth.

Born on or before April 5, 1970 – No change in your statutory retirement age from 66 or 67, depending on your date of birth

Born between April 6, 1970 and April 5, 1978 – Your current statutory retirement age of 67 will be raised to 67 years 1 month to 68 years depending on your date of birth

Born after April 6, 1978 – No change in your state retirement age from 68

You can get information about your state pension, including retirement age and what you will receive, Use Government State Pension Age Checker here Note, however, that it is based on existing legislation, not the changes mentioned here, which are not yet law.

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