The DWP will increase state pension ages starting from Monday (Image: Getty)
The state pension age is officially starting to increase from 66 to 67 from this Monday, April 6, but when exactly you will be impacted by the change depends on your specific date of birth.
Instead of a ‘cliff edge’ for all state pensioners aged 66 this year, the state pension age rise is being phased in over the course of two tax years and the first group will be affected from this Monday onwards.
The age at which retirees can claim their pension benefits from the state is set to begin increasing from April 6, 2026 for people born in certain date ranges.
This state pension age increase was put into law in 2014, but the age rise is not happening at the same time for all pensioners. Instead, it is being gradually phased in over a period of three tax years depending on your date of birth.
READ MORE: Reeves HMRC Inheritance Tax increase to hit households from Monday April 6
READ MORE: Tax-free Personal Allowance rises to £13,830 for households after HMRC backdate
So for some state pensioners, they will receive their state pension at age 66 and 1 month (which previously would have been at exactly age 66), all the way up in gradual one month increments to those who will get theirs aged 66 and 11 months, and then finally, pensioners who will not receive theirs until age 67, in two years’ time.
Who receives their state pension from 66 and 1 month and who has to wait until they’re 67 is entirely dependent on their date of birth.
The monthly incremental phase-in has been set based on blocks of monthly birth date ranges, beginning in April 1960.
Those who were born between April 6 1960 and May 5 1960 will get their state pension from 66 years and 1 month – that means they will be eligible for state pension payments from May 6 to June 6, 2026, whereas without the age rise it would have been April.
Then, those born May 6 to June 5, 1960 will get their pension when they’re aged from 66 years and 2 months, which is July to August 2026. Those born June 6, 1960 to July 5, 1960, 66 years 3 months, which is September to October 2026.
Those born July 6, 1960 to August 5, 1960 – 66 years 4 months – get their state pension in November to December 2026.
Everyone born in later months than this will not get their state pension until 2027 or 2028.
The government says about the phase-in in its guidance: “The Pensions Act 2014 brought the increase in the state pension age from 66 to 67 forward by eight years. The state pension age for men and women will now increase to 67 between 2026 and 2028.
“The government also changed the way in which the increase in the state pension is phased so that rather than reaching state pension age on a specific date, people born between April 6, 1960 and March 5, 1961 will reach their state pension age at 66 years and the specified number of months.”
Separately, the government also announced that the state pension age is being reviewed again, earlier than is mandatory. The last pension age review was completed in 2023 and is only required to be redone every six years. But due to pressure on the public purse, the pension benefits age is being looked at again, sooner than planned. It means the next pension age increase to 68, due in the 2040s, could be brought forward depending on what the review concludes.