In our weekly series, readers can email in with any question about retirement and pension savings to be answered by our expert, Tom Selby, director of public policy at investment platform AJ Bell. There is nothing he does not know about pensions. If you have a question for him, email us at money@inews.co.uk.

Question: I’m finally approaching what I thought was my state pension age (I celebrate my 66th birthday in November 2026) but have recently read the state pension age is rising to 67 “between 2026 and 2028”. Does this mean I’ll have to wait yet another year?

Answer: The UK state pension remains the foundation upon which most people’s retirement plans are built. As things stand, once you reach your 66th birthday you become entitled to the benefit, with the full amount worth £230.25 per week in 2025/26 (or just shy of £12,000 a year).

It is possible you will receive more or less than this depending on your National Insurance (NI) contribution record and the entitlement you built up under the system before it was reformed in April 2016. You can check how much you can expect to receive from the state in retirement by putting your details into this online tool.

The main elements of the state pension are protected by the triple lock, meaning it increases annually each year by the highest of average earnings growth, inflation or 2.5 per cent. 

As you note in your question, in response to rising life expectancy, which increases the projected cost to the Exchequer of paying state pensions to the population, the state pension age is due to go up to age 67 between 2026 and 2028 and again to age 68 between 2044 and 2046.

All this means is that people born between 6 April 1960 and 6 March 1961 will have a state pension age of somewhere between 66 and 67 under plans to ease the transition for people affected.

For example, if you were born between 6 May 1960 and 5 June 1960, your state pension age will be 66 and 2 months. But if you were born between 6 February 1961 and 5 March 1961, your state pension age will be 66 and 11 months. As you were born in November 1960, your state pension age will be either 66 and 7 months (if your date of birth is from 1 November to 5 November) or 66 and 8 months (if your date of birth is from 6 November to 30 November).

While this sounds a bit messy, you can check your state pension age easily by putting your date of birth into this online tool. It’s important to remember that, whatever your state pension age, you will need to claim the benefit from the government – you should receive a letter inviting you to claim around four months before your state pension age.

What can you do to protect yourself against future state pension age rises?

While in your case your state pension age is now locked in (people are generally given a decade of notice of any state pension age changes), younger savers might be looking at the current economic situation and wondering whether faster state pension age rises could be on the cards in the future.

Indeed, some have speculated the state pension age could eventually need to go beyond 70 to prevent costs ballooning out of control.

The Government has instigated a statutory review of the state pension age, while it is also taking a broader look at the UK pensions system via a Pensions Commission review. Both have only just kicked off and any substantial changes are unlikely to be implemented before the general election.

However, given the demographic and fiscal challenges we face as a country, the state pension age is only going one way long-term – up.

This places a greater emphasis, particularly on younger people, on taking responsibility for your own retirement, saving as much as you can, as early as possible and maximising the long-term benefit of any available employer contributions, upfront tax relief and tax-free investment growth.