Pensions and perks delayed
If you were born 65 years ago, you’ll miss out on £7,500, says Paul Lewis.
If you’re currently younger than 651 /2, don’t expect to get your state pension at 66. The qualifying age is rising from 6 April 2026 – but, with just six months to go, thousands of people don’t seem to know about it.
If you were born on 6 March 1961 or later, you will not reach state pension age until your 67th birthday, a whole year longer than older people who qualified at 66. The change begins for anyone born on 6 April 1960 or earlier, and state pension age rises one month for every month or part of a month older than that. Someone born 65 years ago in this Radio Times week (11–17 October) must wait for their pension until they are 66 years and seven months – and miss out on £7,500 pension, as each month’s delay loses them over £1,000 in state pension.
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(Don’ t blame the present Government, by the way. This law was passed in 2014, when David Cameron was PM, and George Osborne the Chancellor.)
The change doesn’t apply to pensions paid by past employers, which generally begin at age 65 – although some of those (a very few) will reduce your company pension a year or two later, once the state pension begins.
State pension age brings entitlement to many other things, including free bus travel in many parts of England, and winter fuel payment and its Scottish equivalent throughout the UK. So those perks will also be delayed.
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If you work, you will continue to pay National Insurance Contributions for an extra year – they stop at state pension age. And if you cannot work, then the means-tested benefits you can claim under state pension age are less than half the value of those that apply to state pensioners.
There isn’t much you can do about this change. But knowing about it will at least help you to plan. Go to gov.uk and search “state pension age calculator”. No further change is currently planned until a rise to 68 phased in from 2044 and affecting anyone born from 6 April 1977. But the Government has set up a formal review to look at state pension age and the rise to 68 may be moved – either earlier or later – after it reports next year.