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This pension access age calculator uses your date of birth to show the earliest date you can take a private or workplace pension under the normal minimum pension age, and your State Pension age on the current timetable.
Guidance, not advice. The result is the normal minimum pension age from the tax rules. Your scheme can set a later age. Nothing you enter is stored, and there is no charge to use it. The calculator runs in your browser.
The normal minimum pension age is the earliest age a registered pension scheme can pay a pension, or most lump sums, without an unauthorised-payment tax charge. It is 55 until 5 April 2028. From 6 April 2028 it is 57. That is section 279 of the Finance Act 2004, as substituted by section 10 of the Finance Act 2022, and it is restated in HMRC's Pensions Tax Manual, PTM062100. GOV.UK's policy note says the increase has effect on and after 6 April 2028.
The age applies on the date the benefit is paid. It is not a permanent right that stays at 55 once you have had a birthday. If your 55th birthday is before 6 April 2028, that birthday is the earliest date. If you were born from 7 April 1971 to 5 April 1973, you reach 57 only after 6 April 2028. You can take benefits up to 5 April 2028. After that, benefits you have not already taken wait until you are 57. If your 55th birthday is on or after 6 April 2028, you wait until 57. Someone who turns 55 on 5 April 2028 has a one-day window. Someone who turns 55 on 6 April 2028 does not.
A 29 February birthday is taken as 1 March in a year that is not a leap year. That is the anniversary on which a person attains an age in England and Wales (Family Law Reform Act 1969, section 9). State Pension dates follow the published timetable, which clamps a missing day to the last day of the month, as in the note that someone born on 31 July 1960 reaches 66 years and 4 months on 30 November 2026.
These ranges follow the rule above. The example dates are calculated from the boundary dates of birth, not typed in by hand.
| Date of birth | Earliest access | From 6 April 2028 |
|---|---|---|
| On or before 6 April 1971 | Your 55th birthday. Someone born on 6 April 1971 can be paid from 6 April 2026. | No gap. That person reaches 57 on 6 April 2028, the day the age rises. |
| 7 April 1971 to 5 April 1973 | Your 55th birthday, but only until 5 April 2028. Born 7 April 1971: from 7 April 2026. Born 5 April 1973: on 5 April 2028 only. | Benefits not already taken wait until 57. Those two dates of birth reach 57 on 7 April 2028 and 5 April 2030. |
| On or after 6 April 1973 | Your 57th birthday. Someone born on 6 April 1973 can be paid from 6 April 2030. | Their 55th birthday is 6 April 2028, the day the minimum age becomes 57, so there is no age-55 window. |
| Date of birth | Private or workplace pension | State Pension |
|---|---|---|
| 6 April 1971 | 55 on 6 April 2026. Already 57 by 6 April 2028, so no gap. | 67 on 6 April 2038 |
| 7 April 1971 | 55 on 7 April 2026, until 5 April 2028. If not taken by then, 57 on 7 April 2028. | 67 on 7 April 2038 |
| 5 April 1973 | 55 on 5 April 2028, until 5 April 2028. If not taken by then, 57 on 5 April 2030. | 67 on 5 April 2040 |
| 6 April 1973 | 57 on 6 April 2030. No age-55 window. | 67 on 6 April 2040 |
| 31 July 1960 | 55 on 31 July 2015. Already 57 by 6 April 2028, so no gap. | 66 years and 4 months on 30 November 2026 |
| 15 June 1980 | 57 on 15 June 2037. No age-55 window. | 68 on 15 June 2048 |
For a private or workplace pension, the earliest date under the normal minimum pension age is your 55th birthday if that birthday falls before 6 April 2028, and your 57th birthday if it falls on or after 6 April 2028. The age is 55 before 6 April 2028 and 57 from that date (Finance Act 2022, section 10). Your scheme can set a later age. This is not your State Pension age.
You can, if you reach 55 before 6 April 2028 and your scheme allows it. From 6 April 2028 the normal minimum pension age is 57. If your 55th birthday is on or after that date, you cannot take a private or workplace pension at 55 under the normal rules. A protected pension age or ill-health retirement can be different. This calculator does not check either.
From 6 April 2028 the normal minimum pension age rises from 55 to 57. That is the earliest age most people can be paid a pension, or most lump sums, from a registered pension scheme without an unauthorised payment tax charge. HMRC's Pensions Tax Manual (PTM062100) states the same date. The rise does not apply to members of the firefighters', police and armed forces public service schemes.
If you were born from 7 April 1971 to 5 April 1973, you reach 55 before 6 April 2028 but you do not reach 57 until after that date. You can take benefits from your 55th birthday until 5 April 2028. If you have not taken them by then, benefits you have not already taken can be paid from your 57th birthday. Someone born on 5 April 1973 has that window on one day, 5 April 2028, and otherwise waits until 5 April 2030. Someone born on 6 April 1973 has no age-55 window: the earliest date is 6 April 2030. Someone born on 6 April 1971 is outside this group, because they reach 57 on 6 April 2028, the same day the age rises.
No. State Pension age follows a different timetable. It is rising from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028 for people born from 6 April 1960 to 5 March 1961. People born from 6 March 1961 to 5 April 1977 reach it at 67. The timetable can change, especially the later rise from 67 to 68, and Parliament would have to approve a change. Use the GOV.UK checker as well as this page.
A protected pension age is a right under a particular scheme to take benefits before the normal minimum pension age. It is not worked out from your date of birth alone. For the 2028 increase, HMRC's Pensions Tax Manual (PTM062215) says you generally needed an unqualified right, before 4 November 2021, to take benefits before 57, and the scheme rules on 11 February 2021 had to allow payment before 57. It can differ from scheme to scheme. Ask the scheme. This calculator does not check it.
The tax rules allow a pension before normal minimum pension age if the ill-health condition is met. The scheme administrator needs evidence from a registered medical practitioner that you are, and will continue to be, incapable of your current occupation because of injury, sickness, disease or disability, and you must stop doing that job (HMRC Pensions Tax Manual PTM062100). Scheme rules can be stricter. This calculator does not assess ill health.
No. The date is used only in your browser to work out the result. It is not sent to Compare Drawdown and it is not saved. There is no charge to use the calculator. It is guidance, not personal advice.
Important: The value of investments can fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invest. Tax rules can change and benefits depend on individual circumstances. This is not financial advice.