State Pension Age: Independent Reports

Friday 24th March 2017 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions (Richard Harrington)]

In order to keep the future state pension sustainable and fair for future generations, the Government introduced a regular and structured method for considering future changes in the state pension age as part of the Pension Act 2014, section 27.

In line with this method, in November 2016 the Government commissioned the Government Actuary to examine two scenarios for specified proportions (32.0% and 33.3%) that reflect the core principle announced in the autumn statement 2013 that people should spend “up to one third” of their adult life drawing a state pension.

The Government also commissioned an independent review of state pension age to look into wider appropriate factors around reviewing the state pension age, led by John Cridland CBE.

Today I will lay both these reports before Parliament, and would like to take this opportunity to record my thanks to the Government Actuary and John Cridland and their respective teams for their contributions.

The Government will now consider both of these reports very carefully and will present their first review of the state pension age to Parliament in May 2017. The review will be forward looking and will not recommend state pension age changes to be made before 2028. Any proposed changes would be brought for parliamentary consideration and would require primary legislation.

[HCWS552]