What age can you buy an annuity? Usually from 55, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028. Older buyers tend to get more income per pound, for fewer expected years.
This page does not name a best age. What changes as you get older is the income each pound buys, the number of years it is expected to be paid, and how much of the decision rests on rates nobody can see yet. Below: the earliest age, what a dated rate table shows at different ages, what waiting changes, and buying in stages.
Free guidance comes first: Pension Wise, run by MoneyHelper, is impartial, government-backed and costs nothing. Prefer to go over pots, health and a partner’s position out loud? A free call, made by an adviser the FCA has authorised, starts with your phone number entered on the form on this page.
The earliest age, and where it comes from
An annuity is bought with money from a defined contribution pension, so the first question is when that pension can be paid out at all. Finance Act 2004 sets what it calls the normal minimum pension age: for a scheme that is not a uniformed services pension scheme, section 279 sets 55 for dates up to 5 April 2028 and 57 afterwards. The same section keeps uniformed services schemes at 55, and HMRC’s note on the change leaves the firefighters’, police and armed forces public service schemes out of the rise.
A personal pension’s own terms can set a higher age; GOV.UK puts it as “It’s not normally before 55”. A protected pension age, which some people hold from before the rule changed, replaces the general minimum for that pension, the same HMRC note says. Hargreaves Lansdown’s buying page gives the same ages for annuities: any time from 55, rising to 57 from 2028.
Below the minimum age the way in is narrow. MoneyHelper’s page (archived 27 November 2025, so check its current wording) lists retiring early because of poor health and an earlier protected minimum age listed by the provider. It warns that a cold call, text, email or visit offering access earlier than 55 is likely a scam, and that someone who is 55 or 56 on 6 April 2028 might lose access until 57, “even if you’ve already taken money”. See ill-health retirement, protected pension ages, taking a pension at 55 and the FCA’s pension scams page.
Reaching the minimum age does not oblige anyone to buy. A scheme’s normal pension age is often 60, 65 or State Pension age, and a provider will usually send an annuity quote just before the retirement age it holds for you. You do not have to buy the annuity from that provider: see comparing annuity quotes. Whether a given insurer has an upper age limit is a question for that insurer. State Pension age is a separate date again: GOV.UK notes it may differ from the age for a workplace or personal pension, and its State Pension age tool gives yours (see how the State Pension works).
What a published rate table shows as age rises
The clearest way to see the effect of age is a table where everything else is held still. Hargreaves Lansdown publishes one each week: annual income from a £100,000 pension, on one set of assumptions, at six ages. The table below is the one dated 15 October 2026, as read on 20 October 2026. It is a snapshot of one broker’s quotes on a single date, not an offer and not what any reader would be quoted.
| HL’s table of 15 October 2026: annual income from £100,000 | Age 55 | Age 60 | Age 65 | Age 70 | Age 75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single life, level, no guarantee | £7,078 | £7,476 | £8,211 | £9,002 | £10,212 |
| Single life, level, 5 year guarantee | £7,070 | £7,461 | £8,146 | £8,886 | £9,950 |
| Single life, RPI, 5 year guarantee | £4,486 | £4,922 | £5,618 | £6,417 | £7,592 |
| Joint life 50%, level, no guarantee | £6,696 | £7,144 | £7,658 | £8,361 | £9,146 |
The quotes rest on assumptions set out in annuity rates at Hargreaves Lansdown, including a spouse three years younger on the joint life row. HL also says rates change regularly and quotes are guaranteed for only a limited time, so they could be higher or lower in the future.
Our subtraction from the first row (working saved in the sources file): the level single life income is £398 higher at 60 than at 55, £735 higher at 65 than at 60, £791 higher at 70 than at 65 and £1,210 higher at 75 than at 70. Between 55 and 75 the gap is £3,134 a year on that row, £2,880 on the second, £3,106 on the RPI row and £2,450 on the joint life row. So in this one table the income rises at every step, and the steps get larger.
What the table cannot do is tell one person what to do. Someone buying at 55 and someone buying at 75 are different people with different pots, and a future table will have different rates. The row that starts lowest, the RPI one, buys a rising income; the inflation-linked annuity page covers that trade. For what a particular pot might buy, see how much income a pension pot buys.
Why income climbs with age, and what waiting changes
GOV.UK explains the amount an annuity pays by how long the insurer expects you to live and how many years it will have to pay you, with age and gender, pot size, interest rates and, sometimes, health all feeding in. A buyer who is older is generally expected to be paid for fewer years, which is the mechanism behind the rising rows above. See what a pension annuity is for the rest of the pricing.
Three points from MoneyHelper’s annuities guide (archived 13 September 2026) bear on timing. None is a forecast:
- The rate is not only about age. It depends on your age, health and where you plan to live, and on interest rates and other market factors, and rates often change. A quote a few years from now reflects the rates of that day as well as your older age; where annuity rates are heading covers the link to interest rates.
- Money left invested can move either way. Its value can rise and fall until you choose to take it. A provider will usually move invested money into more stable investments as you near the scheme’s normal pension age, so staying in the default fund after that might mean missing out on growth.
- Once bought, it is fixed. Most annuities have a 30-day cooling-off period, after which an annuity cannot be cancelled. Retirement is often over 20 years, so the terms agreed on the day apply for a long time.
The other side of waiting: the annuity income you might have received before you buy is not paid, and the pot supports you or sits unused in the meantime. Whether a higher figure later makes up for those years depends on your pot, health, partner and other income, and no table settles it. Quotes are guaranteed only for a limited time, so a quote goes stale; free annuity advice covers where to get a current one.
Health can move the offer too. Insurers ask medical questions to estimate life expectancy, and the same guide lists a condition such as diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer, being overweight or smoking, certain jobs such as manual labour, and living in an area with low life expectancy as reasons a higher income might be offered. Which count, and by how much, is for the insurer to decide on your answers; see enhanced annuity rates and who qualifies.
When timing turns on health, a partner or several pots, an adviser with FCA authorisation can lay the figures side by side. That conversation is free; a short note of your situation on the form on this page, mentioning timing, is enough to start it.
Buying in stages
Buying an annuity need not happen all at once. MoneyHelper’s guide says you can normally use the whole pot, or take up to 25% as tax-free cash first and either use the rest straight away or keep it invested and use some or all of it to buy an annuity at the same time or later. With several pensions you could do different things with each: use all of one for an annuity and leave another invested so it can continue to grow. Buying an annuity to cover essential bills, and paying for other costs another way, is a further option the guide mentions.
For the age question, each purchase is priced on its own day. Where a fixed-term annuity’s maturity amount buys another annuity, the new one might pay more because it is based on an older age and health, though that depends on the rates available at the time. A later purchase from a pot left invested is likewise priced on the age, health and rates of its own day, and each annuity bought has its own cooling-off period.
Compare staging with keeping the pot invested in annuity or drawdown, with fixed-term annuities, and with the deferred annuity, where the annuity is bought now but pays from a later date.
Age questions people ask
Is there a maximum age to buy an annuity?
Ask the insurer when you request a quote. HL’s table stops at age 75, but a table that stops is not a statement about a limit.
What is the age 75 rule for annuities and pension death benefits?
It concerns tax on what is inherited, not a deadline for buying. MoneyHelper says money left in a pension can usually be inherited tax-free if you die before 75, subject to conditions including the lump sum and death benefit allowance, and that after 75 it is normally added to the beneficiary’s other income for Income Tax. Money an annuity pays to a beneficiary is usually taxed as their income. Inheritance tax is a separate question; see pension death benefits and what happens to an annuity when you die.
Is it better to buy an annuity now or wait until I am older?
There is no general answer, and none of the sources used here gives one. HL’s income figures rise with age in that week’s table, rates often change, and an invested pot can fall as well as rise. How those weigh against the years of income given up depends on your own position, which Pension Wise or an adviser can go through with you.
Does my partner’s age matter?
On a joint life annuity it is one of the things priced in: HL’s joint life row assumes the spouse is three years younger. The effect is covered in joint life annuities.
Your next step
Age changes what a pound buys, how long the income is expected to run and how much of the decision rests on rates you cannot know yet, so a figure from a table is only a starting point. Pension Wise can explain the options free, and MoneyHelper’s comparison tool shows offers on your own details. To weigh State Pension, health, partner and pots in one conversation, jot your details onto the form on this page. Expect a ring from an adviser firm holding FCA authorisation, with nothing charged.
Sources: Hargreaves Lansdown, best annuity rates (table dated 15 October 2026, read 20 October 2026), annuity buying page and FAQs; Finance Act 2004 section 279; HMRC, Increasing normal minimum pension age; GOV.UK, personal pensions and State Pension age; MoneyHelper, annuities explained (archived 13 September 2026), when can I take money from my pension (archived 27 November 2025) and compare annuities (archived 4 August 2026); FCA, pension scams.