Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether it is still a principle of the Government that an individual should spend on average up to one third of their adult life above state pension age.

The Pensions Act 2014 requires the Government to regularly review State Pension age and report the outcome of that review to Parliament. This process helps to ensure the costs of increasing longevity are shared fairly between the generations and also provides greater clarity for people around how State Pension age will change in the future.

The Government announced in 2013 that people can expect to spend on average up to one third of their adult life in receipt of the State Pension to reflect the experience of recent generations.

The first review of State Pension age by John Cridland was published in 2017 and proposed increasing State Pension age to age 68 between 2037 and 2039, bringing it forward from its current legislated date of 2044-46. This is consistent with the up to one third principle and means everyone born on or before 5 April 1970 will see no change to their State Pension age.

We will carry out a further review before legislating to bring forward the rise in State Pension age to 68, to enable consideration of the latest life expectancy projections and to allow us to evaluate the increase in State Pension age from 65 to 66.