The age of eligibility for State Pensions may soon rise due to a 'pretty hairy' state with regards to public finances, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said.
Mel Stride has announced that a decision will be made within the next six months, with regards to changing when people can retire and collect their pension.
As it currently stands, men and women must be 66 to retire, but this will rise to 67 by 2028 at latest - with the Government previously announcing that it will rise once more to 68 in 2039.
Read more: State pension is set to top £10k for first time ever next year
But there is speculation as to whether the increase to 68 may be brought forward to as soon as 2033. If this happens, people currently between the ages of 51 and 57 will lose in the region of £10,000 each.
Mr Stride yesterday suggested the pension age could go up even though life expectancy is not increasing. He told MPs: “I think there are various moving parts in assessing where we should go with the state pension age.
“One of them is life expectancy and more precisely, what proportion of your life should we expect people to have in retirement as opposed to not in retirement?
"Another is the cost, and if you look at the consequences of us living longer, and you look at that, for example, as expressed in the financial stability report that the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) produces every year, where it casts out 50 years and says ‘what are the public finances likely to look like given the demographic change that’s going on?’, the cost of pensions being an element within that, it all gets pretty hairy.
“So there is also certainly this other element of ‘what’s the cost going to be’? I think there are other issues – intergenerational fairness, when you look at the split between how long somebody works to support those that are not working.”
A previous review of the state pension age in 2017 suggested that retirement should make up a third of a person’s life. Asked if ministers were 'seriously thinking' of reducing this, Mr Stride said it was 'a factor to consider'.
He said he could not be drawn on this, but added that 'clearly, that metric is a very important measure'. Mr Stride said the findings would be made public before May and 'some time in the New Year'.
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- State pension age may rise to 68 for men and women as DWP look at changing retirement law
