Autumn Statement: Increasing State Pension Age

The ratcheting up of state pension age based on life expectancy was originally announced in January 2013. As part of the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor has now confirmed that future changes should be based on the principle that people should expect to spend up to one third of their adult life (taken to start at age 20) in receipt of state pension. The DWP has suggested that this means that the increase to 68 would be brought forward to the mid-2030s, and the increase to 69 would happen in the late-2040s.

There are no immediate changes to the state pension age timetable as a result of this announcement. The DWP has published a note on how the calculations may be done in practice, with a more detailed note on methodology to follow. The...