At what age can I claim my state
pension?
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The age at which you can claim your pension is
called your
State Pension Age (SPA).
If you are eligible for a state pension and are a
man then your SPA is 65.
If you are a woman the age at which you can claim
your state pension depends upon your date of birth. If you were born
before 5 April 1950 then your pension will be payable from age 60.
If you were born after 5 April 1955 then your pension will be
payable from 65. If you were born between these dates then it is
somewhere in between! The reason for the confusion is that the
government has increased the retirement age for women to be equal to
that of men, i.e. 65. However rather than doing this for everybody,
those closest to retirement were able to keep the retirement age of
60 and this is gradually being phased out. Women retiring after 5
April 2020 will all have a state retirement age of 65.
It may seem odd that men have a higher
SPA than women given
the fact that women
live longer than men on average. The State Pension Ages were
originally set in the early 20th century to reflect the fact that
husbands were on average 5 years older than their wives. Therefore
the male pension age being 5 years greater meant husband and wife
would be able to retire at about the same time when the man reached
age 65 and the woman reached age 60.
Remember your SPA is the age at
which you can take your pension from the state. It does not affect
your ability to take pensions from other sources at other ages!
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Can I take my state pension early or
late?
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It is not possible to start receiving your state pension
before you reach your state pension age (SPA). However it is
possible to have your pension paid after your
SPA and it will be increased to reflect the fact
that it is likely to be paid for a shorter time. The calculation of the increases are complex but
are either 7.5% or 10.4% for each year the pension is
taken late. You will not receive any back payments for the
period of deferment.
If you reach your
SPA before 6 April 2010 then your state pensions
will increase an additional 7.5% per year for each year the pension
is taken late. If you reach
SPA after 6 April 2010 then your state
pensions will increase an additional 10.4% per year for each year
the pension is taken late.
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If you have a pensions
related question then please let us
know.
If it's something other people
would find useful then we will post an answer in our Frequently Asked Question
(FAQ) area.
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registration, just include one line of HTML in your web page.
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Read the guide to
investment in the pensions guide. It explains what you need to
think about before investing for your retirement.
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Use our online calculator
to get an estimate of your basic state pension.
Its free and
simple to use you can even include it on your own website!
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