Policy experts have issued a warning as a major change to the state pension is coming in soon. Fresh concerns have been raised about older workers as the eligibility rules for the state pension are changing this year.

From April 2026, the state pension age will increase from the current 66 for both men and women. The access age will move up in stages to reach 67 by April 2028.

Laws are also on the books for the state pension age to move up again, rising from 67 to 68 between April 2044 and April 2046. Experts spoke to the Work and Pensions Committee about moving up the state pension age and what this will mean for people having to wait longer to collect their payments.

David Finch, assistant director at The Health Foundation, said it’s important to make sure support is available through the workplace, to support people in continuing to work who have health conditions. He said: “Older people tend to have multiple health conditions, so it becomes more complicated to tackle each one in turn, and conditions can interact, which makes it harder still, but those things have developed over time.

“Putting smaller adjustments in place earlier to stop things being exacerbated as people age offers a route to being able to manage conditions and work at the same time.” He said it’s important that provisions are in place at an early stage to help workers.

The policy advocate warned: “It is very late to act at age 62 when something may start to affect the ability to work in a person’s 50s.” He also said another factor that is often overlooked is “active job matching”, to link up people who can’t continue in their current role with a place where they can work.

He urged: “There is a potential role for some kind of job-matching support, probably locally delivered, to help match people to jobs and to help get employers to realise that their jobs could be adapted to other people.”

Another change to the state pension coming in from April 2026 is the triple lock increase to payments will take effect. This will provide a 4.8 percent pay boost for pensioners this April.

The uplift will boost the full new state pension from the current £230.25 a week up to £241.30 a week. You can check how much state pension you are on track to receive on the Government website.