Short answer: Yes. The UK State Pension age is currently being raised from 66 to 67, in stages, between 6 April 2026 and April 2028. It isn’t a new announcement or a surprise policy U-turn — it’s the next step in a timetable that was legislated back in 2014 — but a fresh parliamentary report published in July 2026 has reignited the debate over whether the increase is fair, and a separate independent review is already looking at what happens after 67.
Here’s what’s actually changing, who it affects, and what the evidence says is likely to happen next.
- The rise to 67 is already happening, not proposed. It’s being phased in between 6 April 2026 and April 2028 under 2014 legislation, affecting anyone born on or after 6 April 1960.
- It’s driven by cost, not just longevity. The OBR expects the change to save the government £10–10.5 billion a year, as state pension spending is on track to nearly double as a share of GDP by the 2070s.
- The human cost is significant and uneven. The last increase (65→66) more than doubled the poverty rate among 65-year-olds (10% to 24%), and a July 2026 parliamentary report warns the 66→67 rise could hit even harder, especially for those in poor health or deprived areas.
- What comes next is still undecided. A third independent review (led by Dr Suzy Morrissey) is examining whether future rises — potentially to 68 or beyond — should be automatically linked to life expectancy, with a government decision due by March 2029.
- MPs want mitigation now, not later. The Work and Pensions Committee has urged the government to boost Universal Credit for people in the year before State Pension age, rather than waiting until 2028 to assess the damage.
What’s Actually Happening Right Now
Since 6 April 2026, the State Pension age has started moving from 66 to 67. The change is being phased in rather than happening overnight. The first people affected are those born between 6 April and 5 May 1960, whose pension age becomes 66 years and one month. From there, the age ticks up by roughly a month for every subsequent month of birth, until anyone born on or after 6 March 1961 has a State Pension age of exactly 67. The whole transition is scheduled to be complete by April 2028.
So if you were born before 6 April 1960, none of this affects you — you were already entitled to claim at 66. If you were born after 5 April 1977, you’re looking further ahead again, because the age is legislated to rise once more, to 68, between 2044 and 2046 (though, as explained below, that date is far from settled).
You can check your own exact State Pension age using the government’s online calculator at gov uk, which is the most reliable way to get a precise date rather than relying on the birth-year table alone.
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Why Is the Government Raising It Again?
It can feel like the goalposts keep moving, and in a sense they do — but the underlying logic hasn’t changed since the mid-2000s. The State Pension age stayed fixed at 65 for men and 60 for women for over sixty years, from 1948 until 2010. Over that same period, life expectancy at older ages rose substantially. A 65-year-old man born in 1920 could expect to live for a little under 15 more years; a man born in 1950 could expect close to 19. People were simply drawing a pension for longer, and that costs more.
Following the first Pensions Commission’s 2005 report, successive governments legislated a series of increases: equalising the age for men and women at 65, then raising it in stages to 66, 67, and eventually 68. The Coalition government later accelerated parts of that timetable, bringing the move to 67 forward from the 2030s to 2026–28, partly because life expectancy projections kept getting revised upward and partly to control the ballooning cost of the pension system.
The savings involved are substantial. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates that once the rise to 67 is complete, it will save the public purse in the region of £10–10.5 billion a year, largely because fewer people will be drawing a pension and more will remain in paid work and paying tax. Some of that saving is offset by higher spending on working-age benefits and incapacity support for people who can’t keep working, but the net effect on the public finances is still large.
There’s also a bigger demographic story behind all of this. The share of the UK population aged 65 and over has climbed from 16% in 2000 to 19% today, and is projected to reach 24% by 2050 and 28% by 2075. On current settings, the OBR expects total State Pension spending to rise from around 5% of GDP now to roughly 8% by the early 2070s — driven both by the ageing population and by the “triple lock,” which uprates pensions each year by whichever is highest out of average earnings growth, inflation, or 2.5%.
Who Gets Hit Hardest — and Why the Debate Has Heated Up
Here’s where the story gets more complicated, and where the political temperature has risen sharply in 2026.
A House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee report, published on 11 July 2026, took a considerably harder line than the government’s own position. It found that more than half of people (57%) are no longer in paid work by the year before they reach State Pension age, and that the effects of raising the age fall very unevenly. People in poorer health, with caring responsibilities, or living in deprived areas are far more likely to be forced out of work early and to spend the resulting gap living on working-age benefits — which pay considerably less than pension-age support. The basic level of means-tested support for someone just above State Pension age is, according to the Committee, 143% higher than for a similar person just below it.
The Committee also revisited what happened during the last increase, from 65 to 66, which took place between late 2018 and 2020. Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that this pushed the absolute income poverty rate among 65-year-olds up from around 10% to 24% — more than doubling it, and adding roughly 100,000 people to the poverty count in that single age group. Most of the increase was concentrated among people who weren’t in paid work. The same IFS research found employment among the affected age group rose too — by about 7.4 percentage points for men and 8.5 for women — but that increase in work wasn’t enough to offset the loss of income for everyone; it mainly reflected people staying in jobs they already had, rather than finding new ones.
The Committee argues the impact of the current 66-to-67 rise could be even worse, partly because the people affected are now a year older and less able to remain in or return to work. It pointed to evidence that almost half of the poorest fifth of people aged 60 to 66 are already classed as “frail” — a marker of vulnerability to rapid physical and cognitive decline — and that healthy life expectancy at birth has actually fallen by about two years over the decade to 2024, reversing decades of improvement. That decline isn’t evenly spread either: in Richmond upon Thames, one of England’s least deprived areas, people can expect around 70 years of healthy life; in Blackpool and Hartlepool, among the most deprived, that figure is closer to 51.
Because of this, the Committee has recommended that the government consult on raising the level of Universal Credit for people in the year before they reach State Pension age — at an estimated cost of around £600 million a year, a small fraction of the savings the age rise generates — with a view to introducing extra support by the end of 2026. As of publication, the government hadn’t committed to this, and had said it intends to formally evaluate the effects of the 66-to-67 rise only after it’s finished, in 2028.
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What Happens After 67? The Review That Could Decide It
While the move to 67 is already locked in by law, what comes next is genuinely still up for debate. The next scheduled increase, to 68, is currently legislated for 2044–46 — but that date has shifted before, and could shift again.
In 2017, an independent review by John Cridland recommended bringing the rise to 68 forward to 2037–39. The government of the day accepted the principle but never legislated for it. A second independent review, led by Baroness Neville-Rolfe in 2022, suggested a more modest acceleration, to 2041–43, alongside the possibility of a further rise to 69 by around 2046–48 — while also proposing that people with long work histories in physically demanding jobs should get some form of early access to their pension in limited circumstances. Neither recommendation was legislated.
The government launched a third independent review in July 2025, this time led by pensions researcher Dr Suzy Morrissey. Her brief is broader than either of her predecessors’: she’s been asked to look at whether State Pension age should be linked automatically to life expectancy, how it should be used to manage the long-term sustainability of the pension system, and how other countries handle this. Denmark is often cited as the reference point here — it has tied its retirement age to life expectancy since 2006 and is on course to raise it to 70 by 2040, one of nine OECD countries with an automatic adjustment mechanism of some kind. Alongside Morrissey’s report, the Government Actuary’s Department is producing its own analysis of the proportion of adult life people can expect to spend receiving a pension. Both will feed into a decision by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, due by March 2029.
Separately — and this is a detail that often gets lost — the government has also set up a Second Pensions Commission, chaired by figures including Baroness Jeannie Drake, to look at the wider adequacy, fairness, and sustainability of the whole pension system, not just the state pension age. Its interim report, published in May 2026, flagged that too many working-age people are on track to reach retirement without adequate private pension savings, and that groups including women, carers, the self-employed, and some ethnic minority communities face structural barriers the system hasn’t yet fixed. Its final recommendations are due in spring 2027.
The Work and Pensions Committee has urged the government to publish Dr Morrissey’s findings promptly, rather than sitting on them until the Secretary of State’s own review concludes in 2029 — arguing that public debate on an independent report before ministers make final decisions has historically led to better policy, as happened with the Cridland review in 2017.
What This Means If You’re Approaching State Pension Age
For anyone born on or after 6 April 1960, the practical reality is straightforward even if the politics around it isn’t: you will need to wait longer to claim your State Pension than someone born just a few months earlier did. A few things are worth knowing if that applies to you.
First, the new State Pension itself is now worth £241.30 a week, or £12,547.60 a year, for those who qualify for the full amount — typically people with 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions. That’s the maximum; many people receive less, particularly if they have gaps in their NI record or were “contracted out” of the old additional State Pension at some point before 2016.
Second, private pension savings can currently be accessed from age 55, rising to 57 in 2028, well before the State Pension age. A growing number of people are using this gap deliberately, drawing down some private pension savings to bridge the years before their state pension kicks in. The IFS has flagged this as something to watch carefully: drawing on a private pot early means less is available later, and fewer years spent contributing into it. There have been calls — including from the IFS’s own Pensions Review — for the minimum private pension access age to rise gradually as well, to around 60, so the gap between the two doesn’t widen indefinitely.
Third, if you’re likely to be out of work before you reach State Pension age, it’s worth understanding how the working-age and pension-age benefit systems differ, since the gap between them is significant — Pension Credit currently pays considerably more than the standard rate of Universal Credit. Groups such as Age UK and Independent Age offer free, specific guidance on navigating this transition period, and it’s worth seeking that advice early rather than close to your own pension date, since DWP’s own figures suggest around one in five people either don’t know or misjudge their correct State Pension age until relatively late.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is the UK State Pension age definitely rising to 67?
Yes. This is already happening, in stages, between April 2026 and April 2028, under legislation passed in 2014. It isn’t a proposal — it’s in effect.
Who is affected by the rise to 67?
Anyone born on or after 6 April 1960. The exact date you can claim depends on your specific month of birth and is best checked using the government’s online State Pension age calculator.
Will the State Pension age rise again after 67?
A further rise to 68 is legislated for 2044–46, but that date isn’t fixed in practice — previous independent reviews have both recommended bringing it forward, without success. A third independent review, led by Dr Suzy Morrissey, is currently examining the framework for future increases, including whether the age should be tied automatically to life expectancy. A government decision is expected by March 2029.
Could the State Pension age eventually reach 70 in the UK?
It hasn’t been ruled out, and it’s been floated as a long-term possibility by some pension analysts and international comparisons (Denmark, for instance, is raising its retirement age to 70 by 2040). However, no UK government has legislated or formally proposed a rise to 70, and any such change would still require years of advance notice under the existing framework.
Why is the government raising the pension age instead of just paying more tax?
The stated rationale is that rising life expectancy means people are drawing a state pension for longer than when the system was designed, and that raising the age helps control the growing cost of the pension system — currently forecast to rise from around 5% of GDP to roughly 8% by the early 2070s — without cutting the value of individual payments.
Does raising the pension age actually cause hardship?
Evidence from the last increase, from 65 to 66 between 2018 and 2020, showed absolute poverty rates among 65-year-olds more than doubled, from around 10% to 24%, concentrated mainly among people not in paid work. A parliamentary committee has warned the impact of the 66-to-67 rise could be similar or worse, and has called for additional financial support for people unable to keep working in the run-up to their State Pension age.
Sources & References:
- Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) – “The state pension age is going up again: why is it happening and what might the effects be?”
- UK Parliament, Work and Pensions Committee – “Transition to State Pension Age”
- Age UK – “Changes to State Pension age” — source for the birth-date-to-pension-age timetable table.
- Fidelity International (UK) – “State Pension ages: the rise to 68 – and the pension impact”
This article reflects the position as of August 2026. State Pension age policy is under active review, so it’s worth checking gov uk or a source such as Age UK, Fidelity, or the Institute for Fiscal Studies periodically for updates, particularly once Dr Suzy Morrissey’s independent review and the government’s response are published.
