Retirement Age – Women Born in December 1953

Women Born in December 1953

If you were born in 1953 then it can be very confusing to try and work out your retirement age – i.e. the age at which you are able to draw your State pension benefits in the UK.

Starting with those born in November 1953, the State retirement age was increased to 65 for women (but in fact only those who were actually born on 6th November 1953 have a retirement age of exactly 65). Then the retirement age starts increasing until it gets to 66 quite rapidly.

For those born in December 1953 there are two different retirement dates as follows:

For women who were born between 1st and 5th December 1953 (inclusive), their retirement date is 6th November 2018.

For women who were born between 6th and 31st December 1953 (inclusive), their retirement date is 6 March 2019. (This is also the retirement date for those women who were born between 1st and 5th January 1954 inclusive).

Therefore anyone who was born in December 1953 will be either 64 years and 11 months or 65 years and 2 or 3 months depending on when in the month they were born. The difference between a woman who was born on 5th December and a woman who was born on 6th December is a 4 month increase in their retirement date.

This is a really sharp increase over a matter of a couple of days and it is not surprising that a lot of people are confused about when they are able to draw their State pension.

Check out how you can find out how much State pension you are likely to receive and how to claim it here.

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Retirement Age – Women Born in November 1953

Woman born in November 1953If you were born in November 1953 then you are at the beginning of a tranche of women who are having their retirement age increased to 65 and 66. You are probably aware that there has been a lot of controversy about how quickly this increase in retirement ages was brought in and the steep increase in the retirement age for these women.

If you were born in November 1953 then there are two different retirement dates depending on what part of the month you were born in. Note that in this case it is a particular date and not when an age is reached.

If you are a woman who was born between 1st and 5th November (inclusive) then your retirement date will be 6th July 2018.

In stark contrast to this, even if you were born only a few days later, women born between 6th and 30th November 1953 (inclusive) will have a retirement date of 6th November 2018 and so will not be able to retire until 4 months later. This is also the same retirement date as people who were born between 1st and 5th December 1953.

This is the point at which the retirement age for women increases to age 65 but in fact the only women who will retire at age 65 are those people who were born on 6th November 1953, after this the retirement age steadily increases to age 66 and beyond.

There are a group of women who are trying to get compensation for people affected but this sudden change in retirement date, arguing that not enough notice was given. So far the government does not seem to have shifted position.

 

 

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Retirement Age – Born in 1959

retirement age - born in 1959When Can I Retire if I was Born in 1959?

The age at which you can take your state pension changes quite quickly for quite a few people, in particular women, for a period of time until it gets to a state pension age of 67 for both women and men.

But for those who were born in 1959 the retirement age (at least the age at which you can draw your state pension benefits) has been fixed at age 66 for both men and women.  So you can retire in 2025. In fact anyone who was born on or after 6th October 1954 has a retirement age of 66. So if you were planning to retire at age 65 (or perhaps in the dim and distant past women had ideas of retiring at age 60) then you will need to rethink.

Pension Age Increases

The reason for the increase in retirement ages beyond 65 has been put down to the fact that life expectancy is increasing and it is only fair and equitable that people spend the same proportion of their working lives in retirement. This means that future generations (who are the ones that actually pay for pensions in payment) will not be unduly penalised by having to pay more for the pensioner population.

 

You can check out how much State pension you might get by checking out our guide.  You also still have time to increase your pension by making payments to a personal or occupational pension if you are able to do that.

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