State pension age increase ‘delayed’ but over 50s still face longer wait for payments | Personal Finance | Finance
Ministers have “delayed” bringing forward the state pension age to 68, according to the Financial Times. Despite this, over 50s will still have to wait longer for their payments as the pending pension age hike to 67 is still set to take place.
Despite this, people in their 50s will still have to wait longer for their state pension payments due to the age hike from 66 to 67 being guaranteed to take place.
There has been a conscious push from the Government to incentivise this age demographic into going back to employment, especially following Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s ‘Back to Work’ Budget.
Mr Hunt announced the abolishment of the lifetime allowance on pension savings as part of his fiscal plan.
Furthermore, the Chancellor outlined increases to the annual allowance and the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA) to further encourage over 50s into remaining in the workplace.
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Bringing forward the state pension age increase was thought by many to have been another part of this strategy.
However, it appears the Government is considering whether this is the right course of action as it attempts to balance the books.
Dean Butler, managing director for customer at Standard Life, outlined the anxiety the reports of a hike to the state pension age have caused.
He explained: “The news that further increases to state pension age have been delayed will be met with a sigh of relief from those who would have been affected.
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“When rumours of a planned increase were first reported in January it prompted thousands of people to go online with 110,000 searches for ‘retirement age’ recorded.
“This was an 82 percent on the same period last year, highlighting just how significant the issue is for many people.”
The retirement expert shared what older people may have had to do if the reported early state pension age increase had taken place.
Mr Butler added: “Those currently in their early fifties were the first that could have been impacted by the changes and these would have been particularly challenging for a number of groups.
“Those planning to start accessing their personal savings before for state pension age would have had to consider whether they would have stretched far enough to bridge the gap, while others would have faced an extended period in the workforce.”
Pensioners are set to be awarded a significant boon in the next couple of weeks with the return of the triple lock.
This is the metric used to determine how much state pension payments go up by; either by the highest of CPI inflation, average earnings or 2.5 percent.
Using the inflation rate from September 2022, a 10.1 percent increase will be applied to pension payments and other benefits.
Someone in receipt of the full new state pension will see their annual payments exceed £10,000 as a result of this.
