The state pension age will increase next year for thousands of people. At the moment, the age at which people start receiving the cash is 66 for men and women. But the threshold will gradually increase to 67 between 2026 and 2028 for those born after April 1960. This process is set to be finished for everyone in March 2028, with the planned increase set in stone in law since more than a decade ago in 2014.
But it will not be over then, as another planned increase from 67 to 68 is due to be implemented between 2044 and 2046. Ministers have also changed the phasing of the state pension age increase, meaning instead of individuals reaching the watershed age on a specific date, people born between March 6, 1961, and April 5, 1977, will be able to claim the pension when they turn 67. Letters will be received from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) before the changes, report the Liverpool Echo and North Wales Live.
The Pensions Act 2014 dictates that a review of the State Pension age must take place at least every five years.
This is based on the understanding that people should be able to spend a section of their adult life receiving a pension, and a review of the proposed increase to 68 is expected before the end of the 2020s.
It will take into account life expectancy and other related factors, and, after the review’s findings, the Government could choose to activate changes to the state pension age.
Any proposed alterations must be passed through Parliament by MPs in the House of Commons and peers in the House of Lords before becoming law.
With regards to this year, UK state pensioners are set for an uplift from April as new payment rates begin.
The payment rises on April 6, the start of the new tax year, this increase determined by the triple lock.
The new rates are chosen going by whichever is highest out of the consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation (calculated for September the previous year), average wage growth between May and July of the preceding year, or 2.5%.
