The planned increases to the state pension age will soon be reviewed
A pensions expert has urged for early access to the state pension to be brought in, as there is a risk that some individuals may not live long enough to claim their payments. Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, told Express.co.uk: “We’re very keen that people should be able to take it up to three years earlier at a reduced amount.
“That’s something they might look at, but they do need to work out the benefits system as well to see what would happen there.” She believes this could benefit those who may not live to reach their state pension age, allowing them to receive their long-awaited payments.
Ms Smith explained: “It would be for people who are in poor health, so at least they get a state pension for a few years and they’re able to stop working. Of course, many of those people may have stopped working a few years before.” This issue is particularly relevant as the Government is set to review the planned increases to the state pension age within the next two years of this Parliament.
Current legislation plans for the access age to rise from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and then to 68 between 2044 and 2046. However, there have been suggestions that the Government could expedite the increase to 68 in an effort to keep the policy affordable.
Ms Smith explained: “The previous Government have committed to doing another review in a year or two’s time. I think they [Labour] will want to look at that and how longevity is working and how the Budgets are working, to see what they need to do.”
“And also around the populace – not everybody is going to be able to achieve a higher state pension age as it goes up and up.” State pension payments increased 8.5 percent in April, with the full new state pension now paying £221.20 a week.
Labour has previously committed to retaining the triple lock, which guarantees payments go up each year in line with the highest of 2.5 percent, inflation or the rise in average earnings. The year before this increase, pensioners received a record 10.1 percent hike in their payments, the largest increase on record.
