Do you know your state pension age? It could be later than you think
7 April 2025, 14:41 | Updated: 7 April 2025, 15:18
In less than a year, the state pension age – the age from which you can claim your state pension – starts rising again.
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It currently stands at 66 for both men and women, but between April 2026 and March 2028 it will start increasing to 67, affecting everyone born after 6 April 1960.
The state pension age matters. The full new state pension is currently worth just under £12,000 a year – an amount that makes a significant difference to most people’s retirement finances. As people approach retirement and are deciding how much to save, or how long to remain in work, knowing their state pension age is crucial.
Yet when people in their late 50s and early 60s are asked about their state pension age, only around 60% can cite it correctly within a three-month window of their actual age of eligibility. A significant minority are either unsure or – potentially worse – mistaken about their state pension age.
Among those with a state pension age between 66 and 67, who will reach the state pension age between April 2026 and March 2028, 16% (or one in six) either do not know or underestimate how old they need to be to be able to claim their state pension. This translates to around 130,000 people.
Those with less wealth and lower levels of education qualifications are particularly likely to be mistaken. This suggests that those who may already be less financially secure face additional financial risk because of an incorrect understanding of their state pension age.
This knowledge gap can be costly. If you find out too late that the SPA is higher than expected, you could face a sudden shortfall in income and regret not having saved more.
Clear, timely communication from both the government and private pension providers is vital to help people avoid such costly surprises and to plan more effectively for later life. But these findings also highlight the importance of personal responsibility to stay informed. The government has a handy online tool for checking your state pension age, which is worth using to make sure you understand when you should get the state pension.
As the state pension age has increased over time and continues to do so, simply assuming that you’ll be able to claim when previous generations were able to may leave you with an unpleasant financial surprise.
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Heidi Karjalainen is a Senior Research Economist in the Retirement, Savings, and Ageing team at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
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