Decision on bringing forward UK pension age rise to 68 delayed until after election
A decision on whether to bring forward the date when the state pension age rises to 68 has been postponed until after the next general election, the government has announced.
Responding to a review of the UK retirement system’s funding, the work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, told MPs on Thursday that now was not the time to make the change.
Under current plans, the state pension age of 66 is due to rise to 67 in a phased introduction between 2026 and 2028, then increase to 68 between 2044 and 2046 – affecting people born after April 1977.
A 2017 government review suggested bringing the latter range forward to the mid-2030s, forcing millions of people born in the early 1970s who expected to retire at 67 to wait another year.
Reports in January claimed ministers planned to bring forward this increase to 2035 – affecting people who are 54 and under today – in response to lobbying by the Treasury in order to save billions of pounds in state pension payments.
However, with a general election expected in the autumn next year, ministers had feared a potential backlash to the change from middle-aged voters. Riots in France over a planned increase in the country’s pension age from 62 to 64 have also spooked UK officials in favour of the changes.
Stride told MPs that falling life expectancy rates had brought down the probable annual cost of the state pension over the next 30 years, and therefore his department would carry out a further assessment to consider the rise within two years of the start of the next parliament.
He said: “Given the level of uncertainty about the data on life expectancy, labour markets and the public finances, and the significance of these decisions on the lives of millions of people, I am mindful a
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