Your state pension may arrive years later than you think as Treasury considers moving forward age rise plans

The state pension age is currently set at 66 but it is set to steadily increase over the next few decades

Here’s a headline that should make anyone under 50 sit up: the Treasury is reportedly considering bringing forward the rise in state pension age to 68, meaning it could kick in years ahead of the current 2044-2046 timetable.

If it happens, it would affect around five million people born after 6 April 1977, who could end up waiting longer to get their hands on their state pension than they’ve been planning for years.

Nothing’s been decided yet, and by law any change needs at least ten years’ notice, so nobody due to retire in the next decade needs to panic.

But the fact this is even being discussed is a bit of a warning that the state pension is not something you should be relying on as your whole retirement plan! It never really was, but conversations like this are a useful reminder.

Why this matters more than it might seem

The triple lock has been generous in recent years. The state pension rose 4.8% this April alone, taking the full new state pension to £241.30 a week. That’s meaningful money, and long may it continue.

But “generous while it lasts” and “guaranteed forever, unchanged” are two very different things, and with a new Prime Minister in Downing Street and a Budget on the horizon, pension policy is exactly the kind of area that tends to get reviewed when governments go looking for savings.

Now is a good time for a reminder: don’t build your entire retirement around a policy that politicians can, and periodically do, adjust.

So, what should you actually do?

If you’ve got a workplace pension or a SIPP, this is a good moment to check two things: first, whether you’re contributing enough to reduce your reliance on the state pension covering the gap; and second, whether your pension is actually diversified, rather than sitting in one or two funds you set up years ago and haven’t looked at since.

Diversification matters more the closer you get to retirement, because that’s when you have the least time to recover from a bad run in any single asset.