Early retirement is set to become harder in the years ahead as the Government raises the minimum age people can start drawing from a private pension.
Ministers are pressing ahead with a rule change which will mean that you have to be at least 57 to take money from a pension pot, up from 55 now.
And that limit is expected to rise further in the coming decades as the state pension age also increases – making it ever harder to retire below the age of 60, according to experts, especially for those currently at the start of their careers.
The “normal minimum pension age” of 55 is designed to encourage people not to raid their own private pension too early and risk being left with an inadequate pot to fund their retirement.
It will rise to 57 in April 2028 and ministers have previously said that it is likely to increase so that it stays around 10 years lower than the state pension age – which will go up to 68 in the mid-2040s and is likely to rise further as long as life expectancy also increases.
During the last government, the Treasury considered increasing it to 58 in a bid to keep more older people in the workforce but decided against the move, The i Paper understands.
Most savers ‘don’t know’ about looming age increase
Tom Selby of investment firm AJ Bell said: “While the obvious concern for most people will centre on state pension age increases, this will likely have a knock-on impact on the point you can first access your private pension too. This age is set to rise from 55 to 57 in 2028, at the same time the state pension age rise to 67 completes.”
He added: “Given demographics and the state of the public finances there is every chance the state pension age will need to increase further and faster than currently planned, which could also mean the minimum access age rises in tandem. That would be unpopular for anyone eyeing early retirement, although it’s worth remembering the average Brit will still have around three decades to live from age 57, meaning you’d need a hefty fund to sustain a decent living standard for your later years.”
Mike Ambery of Standard Life warned that most savers do not know about the looming increase, saying: “What people won’t notice is it will just creep through the back door – they won’t realise. If somebody has to retire due to ill health, or loses their job in their fifties, that’s the age you dip into the private pension and use that to tide you over.”
It could also affect those who wish to go part-time later in life.
Younger generation of workers will be ‘worst affected’
Ambery predicted that the younger generation of workers would be worst affected by the changing rules and added: “The faith of people born after 1990 in the pension industry is very low. If you are constantly limiting their ability to take their pension, that faith is going to fall further.”
Lisa Picardo of PensionBee said: “The rise in the normal minimum pension age from 55 to 57 in 2028 has received far less attention than the state pension age debate, but for many people it will be consequential. Those who have planned carefully around an early or phased retirement at 55 or 56 may find those plans disrupted unless they have alternative sources of income to draw from, and unlike the state pension age, this change has crept up on savers with relatively little public discussion.”
Limiting the ability of people in their fifties to drain their savings can help prevent them from running out of money later in life, Laurence O’Brien of the Institute for Fiscal Studies said. But he added: “There are some people, especially as the state pension age goes up, who are not able to keep working until the state pension age. It makes sense for some people at least to want to draw from private pensions for a few years before they get the state pension.”
A formal review of the state pension age is scheduled to take place before the next general election. The private pension limit will not officially be part of it, but the Treasury has left the door open for an increase.
The normal minimum pension age was first introduced in 2006, when it was set at 50 years old, before being hiked to 55 in 2010. Anyone who wants to access their pension earlier must pay a large tax penalty, although there can be some limited exemptions to the rule.
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