Retirement Age – Born in 1971

Last updated on April 10th, 2023

Born in 1971 (Updated March 2023)

If you were born in 1971 then you may be wondering when your retirement age is. And in this context we are talking about the age that you can take your State pension benefits in the UK.

There have been quite a few changes to retirement ages since the state pension was introduced when men retired at 65 and women retired at age 60. Since then retirement ages have been equalised between men and women and also increased.

For those people born in 1971 current legislation puts your State Pension age at 67.

However, there is a chance that this will be changed to 68 in the future, as recommended by both the Cridland and the Neville-Rolfe independent reviews.

No legislation has yet been passed though and is not likely to be passed until after the next review.

Given that independent reviews of the State Pension age are carried out every 6 years, this would mean that the next review would be in 2029. Even if legislation was put into place very soon after that review, this leads us to believe that it is very unlikely that your State Pension age could change to 68 and still give you 10 years notice of the change. The government remains committed to the principle of giving 10 year’s notice of changes to SPa.

Obviously things could change and legislation could be brought in before that, but in the meantime you should plan on retiring at age 67.

Short notice changes have been the subject of debate in the past and changes in government might also play a part.