State pension age could hit 80 unless major changes made, expert warns
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/state-pension-age-could-hit-122000339.html
Posted by PrestigiousBrit
State pension age could hit 80 unless major changes made, expert warns
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/state-pension-age-could-hit-122000339.html
Posted by PrestigiousBrit
29 Comments
An industry expert has warned that the state pension age may need to rise to 80 without dramatic reforms, amid concerns the nationwide bill will be “completely unaffordable” as life expectancy increases.
The UK’s state pension age is set to increase from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028. There is a further increase to 68 lined up for 2046 but this is widely expected to be brought forward significantly, with a wider pensions review underway.
However, the annual cost of the state pension is rising and people are living longer – meaning higher pension bills for longer. The latest report from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) suggested the cost could be £200bn a year by 2073.
The upshot is that either the triple lock needs to go or people need to contribute far more to it during their working lives, with estimates saying the state pension will cost 7.7-8.4 per cent of GDP by the 2070s.
Jack Carmichael, a pensions expert and actuary at Barnett Waddingham, warns that can’t be paid for in current terms, and might even be undershooting the reality by then, too.
“A more cautious approach would be to assume a closing of the life expectancy gap between the individuals with the lowest and highest life expectancy. Under this alternative, the annual cost of the state pension would increase by around £8bn a year – four times higher than the OBR’s central projection,” Mr Carmichael told the Telegraph.
“Keeping the cost at a similar proportion of GDP would then require a massive increase in the state pension age, potentially up to the dizzying heights of 80.
“Even if the central projection is correct and state pension spending hits 7.7pc of GDP, the cost is still going to increase by almost half in today’s terms. That’s completely unaffordable. Employees are either going to have to contribute 50pc more to the state pension or [the government is] going to have to change the system in some way.”
Other experts have said the pensions system could be bringing in less than it pays out in as little as a decade.
That means this government – or at least its review – might have to act now despite the clear unpopularity of doing so.
“This latest state pension age review, however, may eventually force the government’s hand,” said Rachel Vahey, head of public policy at AJ Bell.
“State pension benefits are one of the single biggest expenses for the Treasury and account for more than 80 per cent of the £175bn pensioner welfare bill. Without policy intervention, state pension costs are set to spiral to nearly 8 per cent of GDP over the next 50 years based on the current trajectory, up from 5.2 per cent today.
“One option is to raise the state pension age higher and faster than currently planned. Although the elephant in the room is that state pension age is just one lever government has to help manage the cost of the state pension – the other is reforming the triple lock.”
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Battle against state pensions gender gap ‘nearly won’ for new retirees
Vicky Shaw, PA Personal Finance Correspondent
Tue 5 August 2025 at 12:39 pm BST 2 min read
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The state pensions gender gap has narrowed to £1.80 per week on average for those who have recently started to claim it, according to Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures.
Statistics covering December 1 2023 to November 30 2024, reflecting “inflows to the new state pension”, show that on average women are receiving 99.1% of the amount received by men.
The amounts for men and women are on course to be equal very shortly, the department said.
The data was obtained following a freedom of information (FOI) request by former Liberal Democrat pensions minister Sir Steve Webb, who is now a partner at consultants LCP (Lane Clark & Peacock).
Sir Steve requested data showing the average amount of new state pension received by men and women who had claimed within the latest 12 months for which the figures are available.
According to the FOI response, the average newly retired man now receives a pension of £209.95 per week, with the average newly retired woman getting £208.15.
The new state pension was introduced in 2016, simplifying the system.
It had to be phased in gradually, helping to protect the pension rights that some people had already built up under the old system.
Women often lost out under the previous system, due to career gaps and caring responsibilities.
The FOI response said: “Women on the new state pension are receiving over £18 more per week than those on the pre-2016 system.
“That is around 98% of the amount received by men (the average for women under the pre-2016 system is 86%).”
Sir Steve said: “I am delighted to see that when it comes to the state pension, the battle against the gender pension gap is nearly won for those retiring today.
“When there is so much negative news about gaps between men and women when it comes to pensions, these figures show that things can be changed provided that there is the political will to do so.
“There are however far too many women who have already retired who are living on reduced pensions and I will continue to campaign for them to be treated fairly, including by rooting out all of the errors which have led to so many being underpaid for so long.”
Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Despite this progress, much more needs to be done to close the gender pension gap more widely.”
She added: “We need wider reform to address the reasons why women have to leave the workplace or have gaps in their pension saving by making sure they are able to access good quality and affordable childcare as well as more flexibility in the workplace.”
Younger generations are paying for the current generation of pensioners who wonder why the younger generations don’t want to work. No shit, they are working fucking hard to pay for a pension that they probably won’t fuck see.
But of course MPs like Liz Kendall will be able to retire whenever their political careers crash and burn, and they’ll spend the rest of their lives in the House of Lords getting paid to do nothing except appear in the occasional debate every now and then to continue having access to peerage salaries.
So, who does Liz Kendall sleep with? Who is her lover?
Do you know?
I do.
Is he a) a trade union leader or b) the head of a private equity fund?
Have a guess.
She doesn’t approve when he does drugs though.
I’m going to start a business replacing the tyres on zimmer frames to account for all the extra rubber we’ll burn.
80? At that point the state pension may as well be scrapped entirely and pretty much just say everyone will have to work until they can’t no more or drop. Maybe fund a single cruise before death and call it retirement.
I will agree with this only if the current generation has it applied to them, so the baby boomers who are retired now or about to retire need to keep working and cancel their etirement till they are 80.
If the current generation wishes to change what affects future generations they need it applied to them first
(Pension changes) etc
(National Service) etc
Even if I were in good health i wouldnt want to work until I was 80…
I’ll be doing a half shift on the day of my funeral. Finish at one, crematorium for two, and about half three my boss will be on the Ouija board asking if I got someone to cover the rest of my shift before I died.
The whole system is a mess. The Tories cut Employee’s NI from 12 to 8% last year.
In 1980, State Pension age was 65 for men and 60 for women – while life expectancy was 71. This meant men got six years and women 11 years of taxpayer funded retirement.
Today, the State Pension age is 66 and life expectancy is 82, meaning both men and women get 16 years of taxpayer funded retirement.
We’re now paying the same NI rate as in 1980, but people expect three times as much taxpayer funded retirement.
The State Pension age should be 76 or taxes should be A LOT higher.
I’ve stopped assuming I’m going to get it.
Definitely better to plan for it not being there and ensuring I’ve got enough otherwise.
>An industry expert has warned that the state pension age may need to rise to 80 without dramatic reforms, amid concerns the nationwide bill will be “completely unaffordable” as life expectancy increases.
Is life expectancy increasing that much? I was under the impression it has flattened in the past decade or so.
There’s no way around it. Higher pension age, no more triple lock.
Every politician knows it too, they just don’t want to be the guys who do it, because we can count on the media causing a storm when it happens.
This is the definition of systemic failure.
Given family history I won’t be fit to work by 70. I’ll not mind I won’t be able to remember enough to care.
Even at 68, there’s a lot of people that are going to be retiring immediately into a long period illness and poor health.
Who’s going to want to employ someone in their late seventies?
There are few jobs which a seventy year old can do anywhere near as effectively as a thirty five year old.
Is this the same as job related pension? Or do they exist separately?
The age is entirely pointless now in these hypothetical posts.
68 is as old as you can probably get away with as although you won’t get a ‘pension’ before that, most of us will be claiming some sort of benefits as we will be unable to work due to age related conditions.
Let’s not all fall for the trap that we think it’s inevitable it’s going up further. Fight it all you can as not only do I want to retire, I also don’t want 70 year olds having to still be builders and surgeons and fucking things up.
claw back the money from those that dont spend it, the rich.
What exactly is a 75 year old going to do for work? Most are going to be slow and shit by that age they simply won’t all be able to keep jobs.
In an ideal world, all billionaires and politicians could only served/treated by people aged 75 and older.
Surgeons, dentists, pilots, hair stylists, waiters, cleaners, executive assistants. Everybody younger than 75 should refuse to work for them.
Give them real life experience of what it means to force people to work until 80.
Its actually worse than that, there won’t fucking be one at this rate ! Im making all the provisions that I can in my 30s to try and ensure that I won’t need a state pension……
I watched 2 people in my family pass away at 74 and they both retired at 68, of those 6 years retirement they probably had 3 years of decent living before they got sick.
Life is for living and if I can retire at 60 you better believe I will be.
Working in the NHS, this is especially terrifying. The media likes to portray the NHS as some amazing gold-plated thing, when the reality is that it is pinned to the national retirement age.
If this rises to 80, there’s a huge chance that nobody in the NHS will see the ‘private’ pension they’ve been paying into, because the government can just change the rules retroactively. You’ll have surgeons in their 70s still doing procedures and doddering nurses and pharmacists counting out pills, because the pension they were promised moved further and further away.
It’s been a ponsi scheme for so long I hate that I won’t see it probably and I’m in my mid thirties.
Sold all our assets as a country and stopped providing council houses a decade before i was born and flogged all that off, we might do good things but at our core our country is socially fucked.
I keep trying to tell my mum the state pension age is rising because it’s the biggest benefit bill and the boomers are a massive generation. “It’s all because of those immigrants the government can’t afford it” idk the boomer generation is off their heads
Other countries have excellent pensions and they get them earlier than we do … is it because they invested in once public, now privatised, British services such as water and mail?
Yeah, fck that.
I agree that the state pension is broken (triple lock is not realistic or sustainable, but no govt wants to be seen to “take money from pensioners” so they won’t deal with it). But not getting any sort of financial support until I’m EIGHTY?
Fuck. That.
Almost nobody earning minimum wage (or a few pounds above) has any hope of being able to squirrel away enough money each month to build a pension pot which will carry them through retirement.
We’re long past the days of houses being affordable to this demographic and unless you’re lucky enough to have somebody die and leave you a free house, you’re shit out of luck.
People on minimum wage can’t afford to be contributing 5% of their earnings (auto-enrollment amount) each month. Even if it is tax free and employer matched. A 35 year old who starts now won’t have a pension pot not worth trading for an annuity in 22-25 years time. They’ll take the lump sum at 55, like every older person I’ve ever worked with.
For care workers, retail staff and entry-level office workers, they’re better off not bothering and being fine with becoming the governments problem when they become too old/ill to continue working.
Ohh look the boomers couldn’t take a cut so my generation will have to take the brunt of it as usual cheers.