DWP update on state pension age change key dates as first rise begins | Personal Finance | Finance

The government has given an update on plans to increase state pensions to 68 and highlighted a key date for the decision. Starting next month, the process of raising the age at which people can receive a pension begins.

The State Pension age for men and women will now rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028. It is also planned to increase it to 68, and the government is conducting a review to determine when this will happen.

As of April 2026, the UK State Pension age will begin to rise from 66 to 67 for people born on or after 6 April 1960. This gradual increase, which is planned to reach 67 by April 2028, will affect everyone born after this date. Those born between 6 April 1960 and 5 March 1961 will reach their state pension age at age 66 and a certain number of months, rather than exactly 66. timeline click here.

Work and Pensions questions debated in Parliament today, Dr. The independent report, led by Suzy Morrissey, was said to aim to create a framework for determining the State Pension Age in future years.

At today’s committee, Labor committee chair Debbie Abrahams asked when the report would come: “Suzy Morrissey is currently running her review of the state pension age and will report in the spring. Now spring is a pretty wide time frame. So when do you think, and this is an interim report before the final report at the beginning of next year, but when do you expect to get that interim report?”

Torsten Bell, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions, explained when the final report would be prepared~: “In the independent review we asked them to consider the framework for thinking about the right level for the state pension age (SPA). Obviously, this is the legislation that requires the Secretary of State to review the SPA. I won’t go into the timing of that today. There is a formal process for that. I haven’t received the independent review yet, but it’s clear what is specified. The legislation calls for the Secretary of State’s review by March 2029.” It is stated that we need to finish it.”

Ms Abrahams highlighted that although overall life expectancy was increasing, which influenced the decision to upgrade SPA, in some parts of the country it was not, potentially unfairly harming the poorest. He asked: “Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy have increased at all levels of the income spectrum, but the increase is much slower for lower-income households in certain groups of the country.

“So, given that, what are the considerations for areas like mine in Oldham where life expectancy is actually falling?”

Mr Bell said: “Many, but I think that’s one of the issues, so if I look at the last one long-term, as you know, state pension increases have been going on since the early ’90s for different reasons. “If we look long-term, there is a degree of consensus that when you see increases in life expectancy there will also be some degree of consequential changes in state pension age.

“I think sometimes what goes wrong about this very easily is being relaxed about it, not weighing it up. So you can take fiscal constraints seriously, you can take seriously the consequences and the distributional impacts of increases in the SBA, while also taking seriously the need to support working people in later life. And if I were looking at the changes in 2011, for example there and some of the comments I saw from ministers at the time after the state pension age rose very rapidly, I would say they didn’t weigh those consequences. The way they went about it is serious enough.”

The timetable for increasing the State Pension age from 67 to 68 may change as a result of a future review. Parliament will need to approve the plans before any future changes become law.