Committee publication · Report · 11 July 2026 · HC 76
Large Print - 2nd Report - Transition to State Pension Age
From: Work and Pensions Committee
Inquiry: Transition to State Pension age
Summary
This Work and Pensions Committee report examines the transition to State Pension age as it rises from 66 to 67 between April 2026 and April 2028. The committee finds that the rise will have uneven impacts, particularly harming low-income individuals and those in deprived areas who leave work due to health conditions. It criticises the government for declining to update impact assessments since 2011–2013 and recommends additional social security support, including a £600 million annual increase to Universal Credit in the year before pension age.
Key findings
- Over 57% of people are no longer in paid work in the year before reaching pension age, with poor people exiting overwhelmingly due to health reasons and wealthier people due to having sufficient savings.
- The last increase (65 to 66, 2018–2020) caused income poverty among 65-year-olds to more than double; the committee fears impact from the 67 increase will be greater as affected cohorts are older.
- Health inequalities are widening: healthy life expectancy fell by 2 years over the decade to 2024; in Blackpool and Hartlepool it stands at 51 years compared to 70 in Richmond upon Thames; work-limiting health conditions among 60–64 year-olds rose from 28% to 31% between 2014 and 2024.
- The government declined to conduct a fresh impact assessment by end-2025 as the committee recommended, instead planning evaluation only after 2028 when the increase takes full effect—a missed opportunity to inform mitigations.
- The committee recommends increasing Universal Credit by £600 million annually in the year before pension age and consulting on this by end-2026; it also calls for improved future impact assessments reflecting range of pre-pensioner outcomes and downstream effects on health and social care demand.
Recommendations
- The government must work towards a sufficiently clear adequacy objective to guide future decisions on State Pensions and state entitlements, including whether avoiding poverty but not necessarily delivering adequacy represents the extent of its ambitions.
- The government should think again and, as a minimum, consult on a proposal to increase the level of Universal Credit in the year before State Pension age, with the aim of introducing additional support by the end of 2026.
- The Secretary of State should consult on options to support those compelled to leave work years before pension age due to ill-health or disability as part of his State Pension age review due by March 2029, taking full account of downstream impacts on health and social care services.
- The government should improve future State Pension age impact assessments by ensuring they reflect: (i) the range of outcomes for pre-pensioners and the expected impact of increases on those outcomes; and (ii) the downstream impact on demand for health and social care services.
- The government must demonstrate commitment to learn from past mistakes through effective implementation, evaluation and monitoring of the action plan developed with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman following its maladministration in communication of State Pension age increases to 1950s women.
Tone
CriticalTopics
Key actors
Debbie Abrahams, Torsten Bell MP, Department for Work and Pensions, Second Pensions Commission, Dr Suzy Morrissey, Age UK, Women's Budget Group, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Notable line
“The government must not just allow that to happen. We heard an increase in the level of Universal Credit in the year before State Pension age would cost £600 million a year …”
Key Quotes
“Over half (57%) are no longer in paid work in the year before pension age.”
“… overwhelmingly, poor people are exiting work before the SPA for health reasons and richer people […] for wealth reasons”
“The fact that those affected will be a year older, leads us to fear that the impact may be even greater this time.”
“An opportunity to inform mitigations has been missed.”
“We heard an increase in the level of Universal Credit in the year before State Pension age would cost £600 million a year, a small proportion of the significant savings—£10.5 billion a year once the State Pension age is 67 …”
“Without it, the longer wait for their State Pension will harm 66-year- olds unable to keep working till”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗