Hackney Citizens Advice Bureau offers help on understanding ever changing pension age

One of the best things about being 64 is that I was able to retire with a state pension at the age of 60.

But that’s history now – state pension age for women is steadily going up to 65 by November 2018, then will keep rising up to at least age 68.

But the government plans regular reviews of pension age to take account of the fact that we are living longer on average, so these dates may change.

If you are thinking about when to retire, it will be important to know when your state pension will kick in.

But most of my friends and relations have no idea.

To find out when you can get your pension, based on the current plans, you can go online and use the government’s pension calculator.

You can also find out about another important decision you can make when you reach pension age.

If you decide to keep working and delay taking your state pension you can increase the pension you receive by 1 per cent for every five weeks you delay –10.4 per cent over a full year.  That’s £595 a year at today’s pension rate.

If you defer for over a year you can take the increase as a lump sum, which includes interest.

The decision about when to retire is yours to make, unless your employer can justify asking you to go at a certain age.

If they simply put a retirement age in your contract without having a good reason for it, requiring you to go at that age could be unlawful age discrimination.

Deciding when to retire is a big issue.  You’ll want to look at any occupational pension as well as your state pension and find out what benefits you may be entitled to.

All of that is much easier to do online. But the closer you are to retirement age, the less likely it is you will have been brought up using computers on a daily basis.

If you do not have a computer at home you can book to use a computer in your local library.

Just drop in and ask.

There will generally be someone around who can help you if you get stuck.

And if you want to find out more, you can book a series of three one-hour sessions at the library to develop your knowledge and confidence.

You are never too old to get online – my father-in-law got his first computer at the age of 97 and was a keen silver-surfer for the rest of his life.

Why not give it a go?