We estimate the impact of increasing the female early retirement age (ERA) on household living standards. Examining the increase in the female ERA from 60 to 63 in the UK, we find increased earnings only partially offset lost public pension income, leaving affected women's household incomes £32 per week lower on average. The proportional effect was substantially larger for women in lower income households. This increased the income poverty rate among affected women by 6.4 percentage points. We find no evidence of an increased inability to afford important material items, potentially suggesting that material deprivation has been avoided through smoothing of consumption.
Authors
Deputy Director
Carl, a Deputy Director, is an editor of the IFS Green Budget, is expert on the UK pension system and sits on the Social Security Advisory Committee.
Associate Director
Jonathan is an Associate Director and Head of Retirement, Savings and Ageing sector, focusing on pensions, savings and later-life economic activity.
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1017/S1474747218000057
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- JEL
- H55, D31, I38
- Issue
- March 2018, pages 1-23
Suggested citation
Cribb, J and Emmerson, C. (2018). 'Can't wait to get my pension: the effect of raising the female early retirement age on income, poverty and deprivation' (2018), pp.1–23.
More from IFS
Understand this issue
The future of the state pension
21 December 2023
Should we abolish the triple lock?
18 December 2023
Sure Start achieved its aims, then we threw it away
15 April 2024
Policy analysis
The future of the state pension
13 December 2023
Progression of nurses within the NHS
12 April 2024
Living standards since the last election
21 March 2024
Academic research
Saving after retirement and preferences for residual wealth
18 January 2024
Labour market inequality and the changing life cycle profile of male and female wages
15 April 2024
Social skills and the individual wage growth of less educated workers
27 March 2024