An independent report will decide whether the Government should bring forward plans to raise the state pension age to 68. This report will also look at the merits of automatically linking the state pension age (SPA) to life expectancy, while addressing issues of fairness between different generations, regions and demographics.
This will form the basis of the third review of the state pension age. Under the terms of the Pensions Act (2014) the government is required to conduct periodic reviews the SPA.
This independent report will be led by Dr Suzy Morrissey and the Government’s Actuary Department, and is due to report by 2027. Key to its recommendations will be an analysis of how any rise might impact those living in areas of high deprivation where life expectancy is significantly lower than more prosperous regions. This mortality gap has been widening in many cases.
This third state pension review has been announced at the same time that the government has set up a new Pensions Commission, specifically to address the issues of retirement adequacy.
This report will look at the international experience of automatic adjustment mechanisms (AAM) for making decisions about the SPA and the role this might play in managing the long-term sustainability of the state pension. It will also provide comprehensive evidence base to support findings — including impact assessments on different groups of people, across regions and nations and across time.
Currently, the SPA stands at 66 and is scheduled to rise to 67 between April 2026 and April 2028. At present there this is a statutory timetable to raise this to 68 between April 2044 and April 2046, but this is under review, and depending of the outcome of this latest report, could happen at an earlier date.
The Second State Pension Age Review (published in March 2023) did not at the time recommend bringing forward a rise to the SPA to 68. This was partly due to a slowdown in life expectancy following the Covid pandemic. However it said that this should be reviewed within the first two years of the next Parliament — which has triggered this latest review.
If this independent review does suggest raising the SPA to 68 before 2044 this would give those affected at least a 10-year window to prepare.
Previously the government has raised the SPA for women from 60 to 65, and then raised the SPA for both men and women from 65 to 66. This has caused a number of issues, with women who have been at hit by this increase changes claiming they were given insufficient warning of these changes. The so-called Waspi women have launched a number of legal challenges against the government around its handling of the rise to the SPA, but have not received widespread compensation, despite the Parliamentary Ombudsman sharply criticising the Department of Work & Pensions over its communications regarding these changes.
In 2024 it said the DWP had committed maladministration for failing to provide accurate timely information to women born in the 50s about the rise to their SPA. However the work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall has rejected the Ombudsman’s recommendation to award these women compensation.
