The present ages at which folks may claim state annuity are 65 years old for men and 60 years of age for women though from April 2010 onwards, there has been an incremental move to equalise the state pension age at 65 by 2020 for girls born after 5 April 1950. Employers and employees all have typically adopted these retirement ages, with one or two folk choosing to work on after these ages, though the govt has been at pains to prompt folks to do so. Some have been entitled to early retirement, though in some situations this has been as an alternative to redundancy.
Once the state allowance had been equalised at age 65, the Pensions Act 2007 provided for it to increase by one year over a two year period from April 2024 and then again in April 2034 and April 2044. Therefore by 2046 the SPA was to be 68.
Nevertheless the coalition government plans to bring in a state pension age of 66 from April 2020, 6 years sooner than had formerly been plotted. This would suggest that women’s pension age will need to increase to 65 earlier than had previously been planned. The govt is also considering pushing through a more automated way of increasing the state pension age to reflect changes in projected longevity.
At the opposite end of the scale recent changes to legislation authorized retirement as early as the age of 50 from all schemes, however, this was raised to the age of 55 from 6 April 2010.
The Annuities Act 2007 also reduced the period over which an individual must pay NICs to be accepted for a full allowance from 90 per cent of working life (44 years for a man and 39 years for a woman) to 30 years for everybody,, for people that reach state pension age on or after 6 April 2010.
All of these changes is most likely to come as an unwelcome surprise to females that were looking to take an early pension at 60
The type of state pension that an individual person can expect to receive at state pension age is far from certain, with a pre-planned steady move away from a revenues based state second allowance to a set rate scheme already well underway, and predicted to reach its conclusion by around 2032. This in itself may not actually come to pass with the existing government presently consulting on the possible advent of a universal state annuity which will replace the present system of basic state annuity, state second pension and allowance credits.
Pension Age and Early Retirement are important issues looked at by My UK Annuity Plan, an internet service which connects individuals with Financial Advisers
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