When will you get your state pension? Is it when you expect?

For generations there was no confusion at all about when you got your state pension. Men picked up theirs at 65 and women at 60. Sadly, however, in 2010 all that changed - and in many cases confusion has abounded ever since. Of course, if you're planning ahead for your income in retirement, then at the very least you need to know when that retirement is going to be, and when the state pension payments kick in. The question is: does anyone really know when they'll get their state pension?

Confusion around the rise to 66

The confusion surrounding state pension ages kicked in around 2010, when the state pension age for women started rising. This was set up 15 years earlier by the 1995 Pension Act which established that the state pension age for women would be gradually increased to match the state pension age for men - and would hit 65 in April 2020.

Unfortunately, after the age started rising, the coalition government decided that things weren't changing fast enough, so in 2011 it brought in new legislation to speed up the latter part of the timetable, so that women' state pension age hit 65 in November 2018.

The legislation also brought in rules that mean that at the moment the state pension is equalised, men and women will see their state pension age rise together - to reach 66 by October 2020.

This change has come as a horrible shock for many women already. Part of the problem was that the government didn't write to anyone affected by the changes until 14 years after the 1995 Act was passed. It means that some women only discovered their retirement age had changed when they hit the age of 59.

Further rises

The government has set out a timetable for rises beyond 66. The state pension age will hit 67 by 2028 and 68 by 2036. It's worth emphasising, however, that there's nothing to stop the government speeding up the timetable again at any point.

After this, the state pension age will be linked to longevity - calculated so that people will spend a third of their lives in retirement. This is where things get even harder for those who won't have reached the age of 68 by 2036, because at the moment, they have no idea how much the state pension age will rise before they have the chance to retire.

The experts have suggested that the link to longevity is likely to mean a rise to age 69 in the 2040s, and age 70 by the 2060s, but there are no guarantees. Instead the government will review the state pension age every five years - with the first review due next year - and decide at that point what to do.

What can you do?

Your retirement age is going to depend entirely on when you were born, and the only way to know your exact state pension age is by visiting government's online calculator.

The trouble with this, of course, is that this isn't guaranteed. There's nothing to stop governments between now and your retirement date from hiking the retirement age still further - or indeed from cutting the state pension.

In addition, the government hasn't factored in the link to longevity further down the line, so younger people will find the calculator's results a bit misleading.

It means that while it's essential that we know roughly where we stand with our state pension, we also need to be making plans of our own, so we are not entirely at the mercy of the state in retirement.