To ask you to check your state pension age

[CryptoFascist]

Posting here for traffic.
I was checking my NI contributions online and found my projected retirement age for claiming state pension has risen.
It's always been 67.
Now it is 68.

Has anyone else's? I've not been informed this has changed, they've just done it.

I'm 64 and reasonably confident I'll get mine at 67. It would be a seismic change if they put my pension claim date up with less than three years' notice! Selfishly I had looked forward to getting it at 60, as I expected when I was younger, but facts have to be faced. Equalising the retirement age for men and women was a sensible move and as people live longer something has to be done about the cost of paying out the state pension, so up and up goes the date when you can claim.

Mines 68, itll probably be raised to 71 before i do but i’ll be dead long before then so sliver lining and all that 😂

I hate to say this but my 33 year old DS on his private pension they are forecasting pension age of 75 for men. I was born 1961 my state pension has gone from 60 to 65 and is now 67 so another 3 years, so hopefully no change until then.

Same age here, I wouldn’t mind so much but the man’s state pension age only increased by 2 years, whilst women’s jumped 5 years.

I’ll be 67. And I’ve known that for years, because the information about pensions reform has been in the public domain for absolutely years.

im not quite sure what point the OP is trying to make. Pension reform had to happen because the system was unsustainable, and designed for when life expectancy on retirement was shorter.

when I was growing up, I saw my mum qualify for state pension at 60. It never meant I would be entitled to the same. First (quite rightly) pension age was made equitable between men and women. And following that, reforms meant a sliding scale of retirement age. Same for men too: their pension age has gone up.

it always surprises me when people claim ignorance of information that’s been publicised widely. And personally I wouldn’t want to be reliant just on state pension anyway - it’s not a great amount, which is why I’ve made sure to have a very good occupational pension during my working life

True, but this was only because men had been discriminated against in the first place by having a state pension age of 5 years older (despite men on average having a shorter life span!)

It really gets my goat. Paid into NI since I was 16 and I have paid in to qualify for maximum state pension. I am still paying huge amounts NI and then they raise pension age continuously.
If you don’t pay in then you get pension credit.
Is it any wonder this country is broke.

Same here. I retired early (58) but have made up the NI contributions.

Additionally, the minimum age for accessing your own private pension will increase from 55 to 57 in 2028. Which won't be a problem for me but if that's the direction of travel and it has the legs to go higher I think that is really unfair and those changes seem to be happening more quietly.

I read recently that it was originally set at 60 for women and 65 for men so that when the men retired their wives, who were expected to be younger than them, could retire too and they could spend their time together! No idea if this is true. Women who survived their childbearing years have lived longer than men for a long time, so it is odd that the retirement date was so much lower for women than men for many decades.

I’m hoping mine is still 67.

what age are you OP?

I was born in 1977 and supposedly I will be able to claim my pension at 67 but I’ve got twenty years to go and I expect it to change in that time!

Yes, I regularly check Government Gateway and at least annually check my NIC are correct.
I find it fascinating how many people don’t take responsibility for checking their tax code, NIC etc are all correct.
But then I also check my payslips match what’s paid to me, and my pension contributions have gone in ok. Perhaps I’m too aware of how often mistakes are made & they’re always much easier to correct when they’re spotted.

I think the trouble in the UK is a lot of people want everything done for them.

@JustMyView13i think you’re right. It may be a difficult truth for some to swallow but the culture of dependency among a lot of people does seem to result in them thinking it’s always ‘someone else’ who is responsible and that they have no agency.

YANBU @CryptoFascist I wasn’t aware of any such raise again of pension age.

The government are taking the absolute piss, especially when it comes to physical manual work that takes it toll; us in those jobs will have keeled over & die before then but that’s probably the plan.

Got to give the French their due respect for the protests of their government trying to raise pension age; we need to protest and refuse it. No if or buts about it.
The UK worker gets the short end of the stick every fucking time.

I think probably it was so that the women could care for their ageing relatives, grandchildren etc. Now we're expected to do that and work as well.

I’m 1975 baby and nine so still at 67, but I’m a main to retire at 65

The Pensions Act which equalised pension age for women and men was 30 years ago. Since then there has been further legislation, but it’s been in place for years, well over a decade. So I think ignorance isn’t really an excuse for not knowing. Anyone with access to the internet (and therefore posting on here!) can easily access the info.

I do agree with pp that working people, particularly middle income, do get shafted, and ultimately there needs to be far more reward for doing the right thing, paying your way and taking responsibility. It’s a piss take that there isn’t more of a differential between working, paying NI contributions for 40 or so years, and not doing so. But that’s a separate issue. The issue the OP raised, of seeming to be unaware of their own pension age, it really a non issue.

Mine and my husband is still 67

No need for the snide remarks, christ!
I really do think people should be notified if their pension age is increasing. Otherwise why bother having a nominal age at all?

When were you born, @CryptoFascist?

I was born in 1980 and it's been 68 for me for years.

I wouldn't be surprised if it goes up before I turn 68 though.

Well, a bonus anyway. I don’t imagine it will be huge.

SPA changes were enacted in 2014. It's been written about extensively for many years.

And the change to 68 as standard was made in 2007. This isn't new stuff.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7f02e640f0b62305b84929/spa-timetable.pdf

Here's the current timetable for you.

OP, now you know how the WASPI women feel. The changes to their pension were made when checking your pension wasn’t a ‘thing’, and the Inquiry has found that no, they weren’t properly / adequately informed.

But why? No one from the government told you it was 67 - you found that out on your own, so why would they tell you it was going up to 68? At no point have they assumed responsibility for personally telling you your pension age.