Schedule 3: Increase in pensionable age for men and women
249.This Schedule amends those provisions of the PA1995 which specify the dates on which men and women reach state pension age (referred to in the Act as pensionable age).
250.Paragraphs 1 and 2 amend section 126 of that Act, which introduces Schedule 4 to that Act, to reflect the extended scope of that Schedule as amended by the Act.
251.Paragraphs 3 and 4 amend Schedule 4 to the PA1995. Paragraph 3 replaces the current heading to the Schedule to reflect the fact that, as amended, the provisions are no longer solely concerned with equalisation of state pension age. Paragraph 4 amends paragraph 1 of that Schedule, which specifies the state pension ages for men and women respectively in a set of ‘rules’.
252.Paragraph 4(2) amends paragraph 1(1), which currently provides that a man attains state pension age when he reaches 65 years. The amendment limits this provision so that it applies only to men who are due to reach that age before 6 April 2024.
253.Paragraph 4(3) amends paragraph 1(3), which introduces the table setting out the state pension ages for women born after 5 April 1950 but before 6 April 1955, i.e. those already affected by the phasing-in of the increase in female state pension age from 60 to 65. The amendment is required as additional tables are introduced by these amendments (see also the amendment made by paragraph 4(5)).
254.Paragraph 4(4) substitutes paragraph 1(4), which currently provides that a woman born after 5 April 1955 has a state pension age of 65, to make provision for women corresponding to that for men made by the amendment at paragraph 4(2).
255.Paragraph 4(6) adds paragraphs 1(5) to (10), which provide how and when state pension age is to be increased from 65 to 68.
256.Paragraph 1(5) introduces the table detailing how the first of the changes (from age 65 to 66) is to be phased in. These arrangements will apply to those who are due to reach age 65 in the period 6 April 2024 to 5 April 2025. The phasing arrangements mirror the approach already used to phase in the increase in state pension age for women where each increase of one year is phased in over two years. Dates of birth are grouped in one-month periods, with a common state pension age date (the 6th of the month) applying to everyone within that group. State pension age increases incrementally in steps of up to one month at a time - that is, those born between 6 April 1959 and 5 May 1959 will reach state pension age on 6 May 2024 (an increase of one month); those born in the following month (6 May 1959 to 5 June 1959) will reach state pension age on 6 July 2024 (an increase of between one and two months) and so on.
257.Paragraph 1(6) provides that state pension age will be 66 for those born in the period 6 April 1960 to 5 April 1968.
258.Paragraph 1(7) sets out how the change in state pension age from 66 to 67 is to be phased in for those born in the period 6 April 1968 to 5 April 1969.
259.Paragraph 1(8) provides that state pension age will be 67 for those born in the period 6 April 1969 to 5 April 1977.
260.Paragraph 1(9) sets out how the change in state pension age from 67 to 68 is to be phased in for those born in the period 6 April 1977 to 5 April 1978.
261.Paragraph 1(10) provides that state pension age will be 68 for those born on or after 6 April 1978.