Section 1: Equalisation of and increase in pensionable age for men and women
20.Section 1 amends the rules for determining state pension age for men and women as set out in paragraph 1 of Schedule 4 to the PA 1995.
21.Subsection (2) amends sub-paragraph (1) to provide that only men born before 6 December 1953, rather than those born before 6 April 1959, will reach state pension age on their 65th birthday.
22.Subsection (3) omits sub-paragraph (4) as a woman born after 5 April 1955, but before 6 April 1959, will now reach state pension age on her 66th birthday.
23.Subsection (4) amends the timetable which sets out when a woman born on a particular date reaches state pension age during the transition from 60 to 65. The transition is accelerated with effect from April 2016, so that it is completed by December 2018. State pension age for women born between 6 April 1953 and 5 December 1953 will now be between age 63 and 65, instead of between 63 and 63 and eight months.
24.Subsection (5) replaces the timetable which provides for the transition from 65 to 66 for men and women between April 2024 and April 2026, with the revised timetable which provides for the transition between December 2018 and October 2020. This will apply to men and women born between 6 December 1953 and 5 October 1954.
25.Subsection (6) amends sub-paragraph (6), which provides that state pension age is the 66th birthday for men and women falling between the groups affected by the transition from 65 to 66, and from 66 to 67 (which, under the measures introduced by PA 2007, is due to take place between April 2034 and April 2036). With the revisions made by subsection (5), anyone born on or after 6 October 1954 but before 6 April 1968 will now reach state pension age on their 66th birthday.
26.Section 1 gives effect to Schedule 1.