Cost of state pension age change will be £10,000

More than seven million people in their 30s and 40s will lose out by £10,000 each under government plans to increase the state pension age earlier than planned.

People born between 1970 and 1978 will have to wait until they are 68, an extra year, before receiving payments, Work and Pensions Secretary David Gauke announced last week.

Labour said the reforms were “disgraceful and unjustified” and accused the government of making workers carry on for longer to pay for their failing austerity policies.

Analysis by the House of Commons Library found the £74 billion the move will save works out to £9,800 per person on average across the 7.6 million hit by the change.

The amount is equivalent to around one year’s worth of payments of the new state pension, which totals £8,300, the research said.

Debbie Abrahams, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “This is a disgraceful and unjustified attack on the state pension by this government, who are asking millions of people to work longer to pay for their failing austerity plans. The latest research on life expectancy shows there is no evidential basis for bringing the state pension age further forward.”

The change affects those born between 6 April, 1970 and 5 April, 1978.