Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the minimum formal notice period is for pensionable age changes to be notified to individuals by his Department.

There is no formal legal requirement to provide notice within a minimum period. However, the Government is committed to not changing the legislation relating to State Pension age for those people who are within 10 years of reaching it. This means that there will be at least 10 years between any future Act getting Royal Assent and the provisions of that Act which change State Pension age coming into force to ensure that individuals are able to plan for the future

In addition to giving adequate notice, we recognise the importance of ensuring people are aware of any changes to their State Pension age and we use a number of different means to do this. In the past, these have included writing to people and targeted communications campaigns. However, we continue to look at the most effective way to ensure people are aware of any changes. Anyone can find out their State Pension age with our online calculator or the ‘Check your State Pension’ statement service.