Planning for your retirement can never start too early and with more changes to the State Pension age on the horizon, it’s important for everyone to understand how this will affect them.
Your State Pension age is the earliest age you can start receiving your State Pension and may be different to the age you can get a workplace or personal pension.
It can be claimed when a person reaches their official State Pension age and depends on a person’s gender and date of birth but generally, people will be able to receive their State Pension from 65.
However, the UK Government is in the process of raising State Pension ages to 66 across the board and there are plans to raise it to 68 in the coming years.
From July 6, anyone born between August 6 1954 and September 5 1954 will see their State Pension age increase from 65 to 66.
There is one more change scheduled after this on September 6, 2020 and from October, everyone will reach State Pension age on their 66th birthday.
State Pension payments can be received by anyone who has at least 10 years of National Insurance contributions and has reached State Pension age.
With all the State Pension age changes, some people may feel unsure about when they can retire.
The UK Government has provided a free and easy to use tool which can give an exact date for qualification.
On the uk.gov website, it’s possible to check on an individual’s State Pension age using only the person’s gender and date of birth.
The tool provides information on when the user will:
How to use the Pension Age tool
Choose whether you are looking to calculate your State Pension age or bus pass age – you can do one, then check the other.
Once the State Pension age option is selected, input your date of birth.
Next, select whether you’re a man or woman.
The final screen reveals the exact date that you will reach State Pension age.
It’s also possible from this screen to get information on when you could become eligible for Pension Credit, get a pension forecast or receive other State Pension information.
Check your State Pension age here.
-- to www.dailyrecord.co.uk
