Steve Webb, Pensions Minister, has revealed that the state pension age (the age at which people become entitled to receive their state pension) could be raised to age 67 as early as 2026 in response to increasing life expectancy.
The previous Government had put forward proposals, which the coalition Government carried forward, to increase state pension age to age 66 for everyone from 2020, followed by a step up to age 67 from 2036. However, because of concerns over rapidly increasing life expectancy in the UK, Steve Webb has suggested that the rise to age 67 may take place sooner than planned and may happen from 2026, a decade earlier than originally proposed.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has argued that this acceleration of a higher state pension age is unfair as it would hit the poor hardest because of the widening gap in life expectancy between rich and poor (currently 8.5 years’ difference for men and 8.3 years’ difference for women).
Steve Webb advised that further announcements would be made sometime in the autumn.
