Awareness of the move to a State Pension Age to 67 - 10th April 2025

We all know that the current legislated trajectory for State Pension Age (SPA) is for an increase to 67, starting in a year’s time. Or do we..?

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has just published a comment piece which shows that as many as four in ten of people born between 1955 and 1965 do not. The IFS used data derived from questions answered by that age cohort as part of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing between 2021 and 2023 and found that overall:

• 60% knew their SPA to an accuracy of within three months. Perhaps unsurprisingly this fell to 42% for those caught in the SPA phasing period between 66 and 67.

• 18% overestimated their SPA, thinking it was later than is the case. Again, the middling band stands out, with a 42% overestimate.

• 11% underestimated their SPA, thinking it was earlier than is the case.

• 11% - one in nine – were in the ‘don’t know’ category.

The IFS research found that certain groups of people were especially likely either to underestimate or to be unaware of their SPA. These included women, those with lower qualifications, those with lower levels of wealth, the self-employed and those not in paid work. People in the top-wealth fifth (quintile) were eleven percentage points less likely to be unaware or underestimate their SPA than those in the bottom-wealth quintile, while those not in paid work were seven percentage points more likely to be in this group than those working as employees.

The IFS says that this points to those people who may already be less financially secure being more likely to face additional financial risk because of their lack of SPA awareness. As the IFS also observes, this lack of knowledge is particularly worrying given that the State Pension (£230.25 a week in 2025/26) can be a significant component of retirement resources for these groups.

Comment

After the ongoing legal battles with the WASPI women, it is surprising that the Government has not made more efforts to alert the people to their SPA. The IFS believes that the Government should write to people around their 50th birthday setting out their currently legislated or likely SPA, and that it should guarantee not to make SPA changes for anyone within ten years of reaching it.

Source: Technical connections 11.4.2025