The state pension age is set to increase from 67 to 68 from 2037, work and pensions secretary David Gauke told MPs on Wednesday.
The move is coming seven years earlier than expected, in order to “maintain fairness between generations in line with continuing increases in life expectancy.”
The Department of Work and Pensions issued a statement, confirming that the change will affect everyone born between 6 April 1970 and 5 April 1978.
However, it added: “Those affected by this proposed timetable will on average still receive more State Pension over their lifetime than generations before them.”
“When the modern State Pension was introduced in 1948, a 65-year-old could expect to spend 13.5 years in receipt of it – 23 percent of their adult life. This has been increasing ever since. In 2017, a 65-year-old can now expect to live for another 22.8 years, or 33.6 percent of their adult life.”
Gauke told Parliament on Wednesday that keeping the state pension age at 66, which is Labour’s current policy, would cost £250 billion by the middle of this century. For this reason, the government had elected to bring it up to 68.