Retirement Age – Born in 1974

Last updated on April 10th, 2023

Born in 1974 (Updated March 2023)

If you were born in 1974 then you may be wondering at what age you are able to retire.

There have been many changes in State Pension age over the last few years and decades and it has become quite confusing to many people as to when they will be able to get their State Pension.

There may be different rules in place for when you are able to draw your personal pension or company pension benefits and you will need to contact the scheme administrator if you are not sure, or you could check your documentation.

For those people who were born in 1974, according to current legislation, your State pension age is 67. However, both independent reviews since that was put into legislation by the Pensions Act 2007 have recommended that this is increased to 68. So although technically your retirement age is 67, it is more likely to be 68 once legislation is passed (which won’t happen until at least after the next independent review).

Ongoing Reviews

There are ongoing reviews of State pension ages like the one that has just taken place but these are highly unlikely to increase your retirement age any further than 68. This is because the government has stipulated that there should only be one increase every 10 years.

The government have said that the state pension must be kept at an affordable level for it to be funded by the current working population (as the state pension is run on a pay as you go basis – i.e. those who work currently pay for those who are retired) and so the ratio of those in employment to those in retirement must be monitored in terms of the fact that they envisage a third of people’s working life to be in retirement. So if people live longer then the age at which they retire is likely to get higher to enable the pension to remain affordable.