Two ages get muddled constantly, and the muddle costs people their plans. One is the age you can touch a private or workplace pension. The other is the age the State Pension starts.
The age is 55 now, and 57 from 6 April 2028
Tax law sets the earliest age you can normally take benefits from a pension scheme. The Act defines the normal minimum pension age as 55 on and after 6 April 2010 but before 6 April 2028, and 57 on and after 6 April 2028 (Finance Act 2004, section 279, checked 1 November 2026).
The change was made by the Finance Act 2022, which rewrote that definition to insert the 57 figure (Finance Act 2022, section 10, checked 1 November 2026). It is a single step on one date rather than a sliding scale, which is why the birthdays either side of it matter so much.
Taking money before the minimum age without a protection is an unauthorised payment, with tax charges that dwarf anything the withdrawal was for. That is the real force of the rule.
It is not the same as State Pension age
These two dates come from different statutes and move for different reasons. State Pension age is rising from 66 to 67 under the Pensions Act 2014, which sets out the birth dates and the age each group reaches (Pensions Act 2014, section 26, checked 1 November 2026), and it says nothing about private pensions.
Because the rise runs by date of birth rather than in one step, the only reliable answer for an individual is the government’s own checker (GOV.UK, Check your State Pension age, checked 1 November 2026). Our guide to the State Pension covers what happens at that date.
Hold the distinction in one line: the private pension age is a tax rule about when you may draw your own savings, and State Pension age is the date a government entitlement begins.
Who keeps an earlier age
A protected pension age sits with a particular scheme rather than with you, and survives the rise. HMRC describes it as applying where, before 6 April 2006, individuals had the right to start taking their pension before normal minimum pension age, and says there is no requirement to register this protection (HMRC PTM062205, checked 1 November 2026).
A second, narrower protection was created for the 2028 change itself. It can apply where, before 4 November 2021, the member had an unqualified right to take a pension or lump sum before reaching 57, and the scheme rules on 11 February 2021 already provided for payment before 57 (HMRC PTM062215, checked 1 November 2026).
Ask the scheme, not HMRC. Protection is scheme-specific and the administrator holds the evidence, so the question to put in writing is whether your policy carries a protected pension age and what it is.
The uniformed services keep 55
The rise does not reach every scheme. The Finance Act 2022 created the category of a uniformed services pension scheme, defined by reference to members of the naval, military or air forces of the Crown, members of a police force other than the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, and firefighters (Finance Act 2022, section 10, checked 1 November 2026).
For those schemes the minimum age stays at 55 rather than moving to 57. Note the limit of it: this is about the scheme, so a former police officer’s separate personal pension follows the ordinary rule.
Ill health is the other early route
Serious ill health can unlock a pension early, and the test is about work rather than diagnosis. HMRC says the scheme administrator must have evidence that the member is, and will continue to be, medically incapable of continuing their current occupation because of injury, sickness, disease or disability (HMRC PTM062100, checked 1 November 2026).
Two parts of that catch people out. The incapacity has to be expected to continue, so a condition you are likely to recover from will not qualify, and you have to actually stop the occupation rather than reduce your hours.
What the 2028 step means if you are planning around it
Work out which side of the line your plan falls on before committing to anything. Somebody who reaches 55 in 2027 can draw benefits then, because the minimum age is still 55 until 5 April 2028. Somebody who reaches 55 in the spring of 2028 waits a further two years, because the age is 57 from 6 April that year.
The people affected are those reaching 55 either side of that date: broadly, anybody born on or after 6 April 1973 reaches 55 once the age is already 57. The delay is not graduated. It is either nothing or a flat two years, depending on which side of 6 April 2028 the birthday falls. If a plan depends on pension money at 55 or 56, check the scheme’s position in writing now rather than in 2028.
Anything you do take is taxable in the usual way, with the tax-free element and the emergency tax trap covered in the tax-free lump sum and emergency tax on a first withdrawal. Taking taxable income can also cut how much you can put back in, which is set out in the money purchase annual allowance.