Increasing the Age Pension age
The Age Pension age for men has not increased above 65 since the pension was introduced in 1909.
The proportion of the population reaching retirement age has nearly doubled; and life expectancy at retirement has also nearly doubled.
With advances in medical technology and changes in lifestyle, people are living longer and spending more retirement years in good health.
Despite this, the Age Pension age has not been increased above 65 years since its inception in 1909.
When the Age Pension was introduced, a male retiring at age 65 would have expected to spend 11 years in retirement. At that time, around half of the male population reached retirement age.
Today over 85 per cent of the male population reaches retirement age and can expect to spend over 19 years in retirement.
To respond to the long‑term cost of demographic change, and to reflect improvements in life expectancy, the Government will progressively increase the qualifying age for the Age Pension.
The Age Pension age will be increased to 67 years, at a rate of six months every two years, beginning in 2017. This change will eventually apply to all age pensioners.
This change is consistent with international trends for a number of OE CD countries. The United States, Germany, Iceland, Norway and Denmark currently have, or are moving towards, retirement ages of 67. The United Kingdom is going further still and increasing the Age Pension age to 68.
The Service Pension qualifying age will remain at the current level of 60 for men. For women it is already progressively increasing to 60 by 1 January 2014.
Changes to the Age Pension age
