• The High Court has today dismissed a claim on behalf of 1950s women affected by increases in the state pension age (https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Delve-and-Glynn-v-SSWP-CO-3174-2018-Final.pdf)
• The ‘BackTo60’ campaign argued women affected by the 1995 and 2011 Pensions Act changes were unfairly treated by hikes in the state pension age to 66 between 2010 and 2020
• State pension age changes are unlikely to stop at age 66 – plans already in place to increase to 67 by 2028 and 68 by 2039
• Future retirees need to plan for a world where the state provides less in retirement
Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell, comments:
“This ruling will come as a bitter blow to the millions of women who had been hoping the Courts would roll back the tide on state pension age increases.
“The financial impact of having to wait up to 6 more years to receive the state pension is significant and for many just scraping by it has pushed them into serious financial hardship.
“While some of these stories are heart-breaking, increases in the state pension age have been a long time coming and are deemed necessary to ensure the costs borne by younger taxpayers don’t spiral out of control.
“The most recent data suggests life expectancy at birth stands at 79.3 years for males and 82.9 years for females. Life expectancy at age 65, meanwhile, is 18.6 years (83.6) for males and 21 years (86) for women. If we go back 20 years or so, life expectancy at birth for males was 72.2 and for females was 77.9.
“Indeed, if we dig further back in history, life expectancy for those who reached the state pension age of 70 when the system was first introduced in 1980 was just 9 years. And only 1 in 4 people celebrated their 70th birthday at all.
“Because of these long-standing trends, savers need to prepare for a retirement where the state provides less than it has done previously. There are already plans in place to increase the state pension age to 68 by 2039, while younger savers should be braced for further hikes if average life expectancy continues its upwards trajectory.
“Automatic enrolment will help bridge this gap to a degree but for most it will not provide an adequate retirement income on its own. It is therefore critical people make a plan for themselves, setting aside as much as they can afford today to fund their later years.”
Background to today’s Court decision
The Pensions Act 1995 set out plans to increase the state pension age for women from 60 to 65 between April 2010 and 2020.
The Coalition Government used the Pensions Act 2011 to accelerate this timetable, meaning the state pension age for women would reach 65 by November 2018 before rising to 66 by October 2020.
The ‘BackTo60’ campaign has been calling for the changes to be reversed for the women affected, arguing the women affected were unfairly treated and not made suitably aware ahead of time so they could plan.
