Why you could be waiting until you turn 80 to get your state pension as the retirement age rises AGAIN next month – TANYA JEFFERIES

Most of us can’t afford to retire until the state pension starts to pay out, so it’s no wonder any increase in the pension age tends to be deeply unpopular.

But although the pension age will start to rise from 66 to 67 next month, it appears to be flying largely under the radar, with little uproar.

Such a move in neighbouring France would elicit country-wide protests. In 2023, the country reeled from riots over plans to hike the retirement age from 62 to 64 by 2030.

In Britain, we face a higher state pension age, but only one group of people has complained – the Waspi women born in the 1950s whose pension age rose from 60 to 66. 

The rise from 66 to 67 for everyone, starting next month and unfolding over the next two years, will be painful enough.

But there are now credible fears that this is just the beginning. Younger generations could be made to wait well into their 70s – or even until their 80th birthday – to draw a state pension, experts tell Money Mail.

That is far beyond the age at which men and women can still expect to be in good general health, an alarming official study recently revealed. 

Stark findings showed that healthy life expectancy – the number of years an average person spends in ‘good’ health – has fallen by 1.8 years to 60.7 years old for men and by two and a half years to 60.9 years old for women. 

That is in the 2022 to 2024 period compared with the previous three years.

So when exactly will you be able to claim your state pension? Here’s everything you need to know…

How will the state pension age rise?

Currently, both men and women start receiving the state pension (now £11,973 a year) at age 66. However, that will change this April when it will begin to rise to 67.

The change will be phased in, so there will be periods when the state pension age is 66 years and between one and 11 months.

A month will be added on to the state pension age each month from April 2026 onwards until 2028 when everyone will reach pension age

at 67. So, those born from April 6 to May 5, 1960, will get their pension at 66 years and one month. Those born between May 6 and June 5, 1960, will receive it at 66 years and two months, and so on.

Retirement age will be 67 for anyone born on or after March 6, 1961. The next increase to age 68 is still up in the air.

Officially, it’s scheduled to happen between 2044 and 2046, which would affect those born on or after April 1977 – people who are about to turn 49 and younger.

However, two official studies recommended the change should be brought forward, and the last Tory government was rumoured to be considering moving the start date to 2035. That would have affected anyone born between 1968 and 1979.

The decision was delayed until after the general election. At the time, the Tories said there was too much uncertainty surrounding public finances, labour markets and data on life expectancy.

Could there be further hikes?

The Government is required by law to review the state pension age every six years.

To keep up with this, Labour has ordered two further state pension reports – one by its in-house actuary and the other by an independent expert – which will look at when the retirement age should rise to 68.

It’s worth noting that the minimum pension age – the age at which you can first access workplace and other private retirement savings – tends to be ten years prior to the state pension age.

In keeping with this, it will rise from 55 to 57 overnight on April 6, 2028.

The minimum pension age is likely to continue to inch higher in future when the state pension age reaches 68.

You should be given plenty of notice if you face a hike in your state pension age. The Government should give ten years’ warning in advance of any changes.

Will triple lock mean higher age?

The state pension increases each year under a mechanism known as the triple lock. This guarantees that it rises by the highest of inflation, earnings growth or 2.5 per cent.

On April 6, the full rate will increase by 4.8 per cent (in line with average wage growth in the middle of last year), from £11,973 a year to £12,548. Labour has committed to this popular pledge until the end of this parliament.

Ministers have effectively, if not in so many words, told the experts working on the next state pension age report to operate under the assumption that the triple lock will remain in place indefinitely.

The triple lock has long been criticised for being unsustainably expensive. Meanwhile, the rising number of people reaching state pension age – and longer life expectancies – are also adding to the bill.

This means the state must pay an old age income to more people and for longer than it once did.

Experts say the triple lock tends to give the most benefit to wealthier elderly people who typically live longer and therefore stand to gain the most from annual rises. 

By contrast, raising the state pension age to help fund those higher annual rises disproportionately affects poorer pensioners, who usually have a lower life expectancy and so receive income for fewer years.

Could state pension age really hit 80?

The huge cost of the state pension is only going to continue to balloon as the population ages and life expectancy increases.

The retirement age will have to rise to 69 by 2049 unless the triple lock is reformed or abandoned, said a bombshell report by independent think-tank, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, published last July.

Workers would then have to toil until age 74 from 2069 onwards, the report warned.

But this may just be the beginning. Jack Carmichael, a senior actuary at consultancy Barnett Waddingham, warns that younger generations could face a state pension age of 80.

He says: ‘There’s a genuine possibility the state pension age could one day push towards 80, and it’s not scaremongering – it’s simple maths.

‘This wouldn’t hit today’s pensioners – it’s a long-term issue. But unless we face up to the true scale of how long people are living and what that means for the cost of paying out state pensions, younger generations could be looking at retirement ages that feel completely out of reach.’

Mr Carmichael says the cost of paying for the state pension could far exceed the Government’s independent number crunching.

He adds: ‘The rise to age 80 would happen in the early 2070s, so it is most likely to affect people currently in their 20s, 30s and younger.

‘The Office for Budget Responsibility already expects pension costs to double over the next 50 years, but even that looks too cautious an estimate.’

At present, the state pension costs taxpayers £146 billion a year. This is based on men living to around 85 and women living to about 88, Mr Carmichael says.

He adds: ‘If we assume people across all incomes start living closer to today’s highest life expectancy of around 87 for men and 90 for women – which is the more realistic scenario – the annual bill doesn’t rise by £2 billion a year, as the models suggest. It shoots up by £8 billion a year.’

He adds that to keep the state pension affordable without dramatically raising taxes, one of the only levers the Government has to pull is the age at which you get it.

However, he points out that the latest healthy life expectancy figures from the Office for National Statistics – which as cited above have shrunk to just under 61 for both men and women – show most people won’t be able to keep working anywhere close to their 80th birthday.

Mr Carmichael says: ‘The gap between the healthiest and least healthy is huge.

‘Any move towards a state pension age of 80 would hit people in the most deprived areas hardest and they are the people most reliant on the state pension in retirement.’

What will workers do?

Telling people that they must work for longer may sound straightforward, but it’s not always achievable for those in poor health or unable to continue in their chosen field.

Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at investment group Hargreaves Lansdown, says: ‘The state pension forms the foundations of many people’s retirement income and many would struggle financially without it.

‘If the age at which we receive this valuable benefit gets pushed further back, we will see people come to the end of their working life with several years still to go before the state pension kicks in. How will this gap be filled?’

Ms Morrissey suggests giving people support to remain in the workforce for as long as possible, through more flexible working or re-training to do more suitable jobs. 

It is harder to continue work later in life with certain jobs, such as for tradespeople or nurses.

How to learn of coming changes

The Government has learned the hard way that it needs to give plenty of warning before changing the state pension age – and make sure that those affected know about the changes.

Increases in women’s pension age have created lingering outrage. Women were previously entitled to receive the state pension from the age of 60. 

In 1995, the Government announced this would increase to age 65 in stages from 2010 to 2020, to bring the age in line with that of men.

But in 2010, then chancellor George Osborne hastened that process so it ended in 2018 and, crucially, also brought forward a separate change to make the state pension age 66 for everyone.

That was speeded up to happen between 2018 and 2020, instead of between 2024 and 2026, meaning women had to contend with both changes in quick succession.

Campaigners do not dispute that the pension age should be the same for men and women – but many women claim they never received letters informing them about the rise before they reached 60. 

It means they could not prepare financially for the years without their pension.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman has also accused the Government of ‘maladministration’ in the way changes were communicated. Labour has turned down demands for compensation.

What you should do now 

Make sure you are on track to receive the full state pension. You need ten qualifying years of National Insurance payments to get anything and 35 years for the full amount. 

Check how close you are at gov.uk/check-state-pension.

Take advantage of free National Insurance credits, such as for family caring duties or unemployment, and when you get closer to retirement look into paying to fill any gaps if you can afford it.

Stick with auto-enrolment and pay into your workplace pension. Private sector workers are now automatically signed up to their workplace pension scheme and nudged into saving minimum amounts towards retirement, which should generate a fund that, combined with the state pension, provides an adequate (but not luxurious) lifestyle.

Don’t opt out unless you are suffering serious hardship because you miss out on the power of compound growth, which is hugely beneficial if you start saving young, and free cash from your employer and pension tax relief.

You can boost your private pension further by increasing your regular contributions in line with pay rises, and diverting some or all of your bonuses into lump sum payments into your pension where you can.

• Are you concerned by the state pension age? Email moneymail@dailymail.co.uk.