Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of lowering the private pension age.

The normal minimum pension age is the minimum age at which most pension savers can access their pensions without incurring an unauthorised payments tax charge (unless they are retiring due to ill-health). The normal minimum pension age was set at 50 in 2006 when it was introduced and since then, life expectancy at birth for both men and women increased significantly. According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, life expectancy has also continued to increase since 2014, when the Coalition Government announced it would increase the normal minimum pension age from 55 to 57 in 2028.

Increasing the normal minimum pension age reflects increases in longevity and changing expectations of how long individuals will remain in work and in retirement. Raising the normal minimum pension age to age 57 keeps it around 10 years behind state pension age, and could encourage individuals to save longer for their retirement, and so help ensure that individuals will have financial security in later life.

In 2014 the Coalition Government announced that the normal minimum pension age would increase from age 55 to 57 in 2028, following a consultation on the appropriate normal minimum pension age for individuals to access their private pensions without incurring an unauthorised payments tax charge. On 11 February the Government published a consultation on the appropriate protection regime for individuals who have unqualified rights to access their pension before the minimum age. The consultation is open until 22 April 2021. The normal minimum pension age increase will not apply to the public service pension schemes for firefighters, police and the armed forces.