The answer to how old someone would be when they retired was simple until recently – 60 for women and 65 years old for men.
But over recent years, the government has redrawn the retirement map and many people have no idea when they are eligible to stop working.
Many women feel particularly unfairly treated as the government has equalised their retirement age with men.
The confusion has prompted a close look at the landmark ages and those magic numbers that mean retirement.
Taking someone’s age on April 6, 2018 as the benchmark, the retirement ages work out like this:
Retirement ages for 18 to 63-year-olds
| Age on 6/4/2018 | State pension age | Personal pension age |
| 63 | 63 yrs 7 mths to 66 | 50 |
| 59 -62 | 66 | 50 |
| 58 | 66 yrs 1 mth to 67 | 50 |
| 49 – 57 | 67 | 55 |
| 48 | 67 yrs 1 mth – 67 yrs 7 mths | 55 |
| 47 | 67 yrs 7 mths and 68 | 55 |
| 45 – 46 | 68 | 55 |
| 44 | 68 | 57 |
| 22 – 32 | 69 | 59 |
| 18 – 22 | 70 | 60 |
The government has said state pension ages will rise again between 2037 and 2039, but ministers have not given any indication of what the changes are likely to be – and we may not know until 2027.
The rule of thumb is spending around a third of your life in retirement.
How much you should save
Statistics show longevity rises around three years for each decade.
Current longevity figures suggest a man lives an average 20 years after retirement and a woman slightly longer.
The problem is working out your savings on averages can mean you miss the target. After all, an average is just that and some people live less than the average lifespan and others much longer.
That could mean budgeting to live until 85 but then finding you must fund an extra five or 10 years that you had not accounted for.
Most pension firms reckon a couple should have a pension of around £26,000 a year to live comfortably in retirement. Most have much less. To reach this figure, they would have to save around £210,000 and both claim a full state pension.
