Retirement age might have to go up to 68 says government minister

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has suggested the pension age will have to rise to 68.

Mel Stride said that despite the decision being delayed, it is a topic that needs to be addressed and that the next parliament will have to make that decision and raise the pension age to 68

He confirmed that there were no plans at the moment to change the triple lock on raising pensions, but he wouldn’t confirm if it was to be kept.

In a conversation with journalists, Mel Stride said he had delayed the increase in pension age because of economic uncertainties and Covid.

He went on to say that people would be given 10 years’ notice of the increase so that it might not be implemented until the 2030s or even 2040s.

Although he reiterated that the decision did not have to be taken now, it was something that would need to be looked into in the future, possibly in the first two years of a new government.

Plans for a state pension rise from 66 to 67 are currently underway. People born after April 1977 will be affected in a phased introduction between 2026 and 2028 and will have to wait another year for their pension.

In France, there has been rioting over the change in the pension age, but Mr Stride said he didn’t think it was in the national psyche of the British people to start rioting and burning things over the state pension,