Pensions Act 2014

27 Periodic review of rules about pensionable age

(1) The Secretary of State must from time to time—

(a) review whether the rules about pensionable age are appropriate, having regard to life expectancy and other factors that the Secretary of State considers relevant, and

(b) prepare and publish a report on the outcome of the review.

(2) The first report must be published before 7 May 2017.

(3) Each subsequent report must be published before the end of the period of 6 years beginning with the day on which the previous report was published.

(4) For the purposes of each review, the Secretary of State must require the Government Actuary or Deputy Government Actuary to prepare a report for the Secretary of State on—

(a) whether the rules about pensionable age mean that, on average, a person who reaches pensionable age within a specified period can be expected to spend a specified proportion of his or her adult life in retirement, and

(b) if not, ways in which the rules might be changed with a view to achieving that result.

(5) The Secretary of State must, for the purposes of a review, appoint a person or persons to prepare a report for the Secretary of State on other specified factors relevant to the review.

(6) The Secretary of State must lay before Parliament any report prepared under this section.

(7) For the purposes of subsection (4)—

(a) a person’s adult life is the part of the person’s life after he or she reaches the specified age;

(b) the proportion of a person’s adult life spent in retirement is the proportion of his or her adult life spent after reaching pensionable age.

(8) In this section—

• “pensionable age” has the meaning given by the rules in paragraph 1 of Schedule 4 to the Pensions Act 1995 (and “the rules about pensionable age” means those rules);

• “specified” means specified by the Secretary of State.