Change in state pension age not to be decided until after next general election
A decision on changing the state pension age won’t come until after the next general election, a top cabinet minister has admitted.
Work and pension secretary Mel Stride said the starting age is not likely to go up to 68 until the 2040s and that there is “no reason why you need to take the decision now”.
Stride also said there were no plans for any change to the triple lock policy but that he did not know what the position would be in the next Conservative Party manifesto.
A rise in the state pension age from 66 to 67, which has been agreed since 2014, is set to be enacted between 2026 and 2028. In March, Stride opted to delay consideration on upping it further to 68.
Speaking at a lunch in Westminster today, he said the earliest it could come would be 2037, but that the decision had been deferred until after the next general election, expected in 2024.
He added life expectancy data had now shifted, meaning politicians might opt for a date in the 2040s or even the 2050s, but pledged to inform voters ten years ahead of any change.
“But it will be for somebody else to sift through the data in the next parliament,” he admitted.
“You can wait until the first couple of years of the next parliament to take that decision and still give people 10 years’ notice of your decision and make the change at that point.”