Scott Morrison says he will reverse the Abbott-Hockey decision to lift the pension age to 70, and take it back to 67.

The plan to scrap the decision would be presented to cabinet next week when parliament returns, the prime minister said.

“I’ve already consulted my colleagues on that,” he told Channel Nine’s Today Show on Wednesday. “Next week cabinet will be ratifying a decision to reverse taking the retirement age to 70. It will remain at 67, which is what Labor increased it to.

“In this year’s budget I announced a whole package of measures to help Australians live a longer, healthier, more active life and that included things like the pension work bonus and supporting people who are older to actually get access to the pension when they are running a business.

“I don’t think we need that measure any longer when it comes to raising the pension age, and it is one of things I will be changing pretty quickly. I’ve talked to my colleagues about it. We’ll ratify it next week.”

When Labor was last in government it legislated a gradual increase in the pension age from 65 to 67 years by 1 July 2023.

The former prime minister Tony Abbott then proposed lifting the pension age from 67 to 70, starting on 1 July 2025 when the pension age would increase from 67 years by six months every two years until 1 July 2035, when it would reach 70.

The Senate has never allowed the legislation to be formalised and it has become one of the 2014 budget’s “zombie” measures that has remained Coalition policy. Labor has repeatedly attacked the government for the measure since then.

In 2014 the then treasurer Joe Hockey said the increase in the pension age to 70 was necessary to keep the system sustainable.

“What we are going to do is to deliver a fairer system for the aged pension that is going to focus on the sustainability of the system with a reasonable quality of life,” he said the lead-up to the 2014-15 budget. “The aged pension expenditure today is currently more than we spend on defence.

“It’s rising to $72bn rapidly, that’s over 6% growth. One of the reasons why is because we’re ageing … but the pension kicks in currently at 65. When Labor increased it to 67 by 2023 we gave them bipartisan support. When we introduce legislation to increase it to 70 by July 2035 ... we expect that there will be bipartisan support.

“The aged pension needs to be a safety net by 2035, not a cargo net.”

In 2014, Morrison supported lifting the pension age to 70, voting for it in the House of Representatives. He then defended the policy when he was treasurer, saying it was necessary to ensure the system’s sustainability, given Australians were healthier and living longer in retirement.

However, he says it is no longer needed.

Ian Yates, the chief executive of Council on the Ageing Australia (COTA), has welcomed Morrison’s decision.

“I’m not surprised, this wasn’t going to get through the senate in its current form anyway,” Yates told the ABC’s Radio National.

“We’ve always said you shouldn’t compulsorily increase the pension age to 70 without a more comprehensive retirement income review. A lot of people do want to keep working, but if people are stuck on Newstart, for example, that’s just not a good look to extend that by another three years.”

Yates said COTA supported Labor’s decision in 2009 to increase the pension age from 65 to 67, for anyone born after 1 January, 1957, but 70 was too much.

“It’s in keeping with the increased longevity that [Australians are] experiencing,” he said about the 67 years threshold.

“But it does mean that we need to tackle things like Newstart and mature age unemployment, and those are significant challenges.”

By the middle of the century, the number of Australians aged over 65 is expected to double, to just under nine million.

Yates said Morrison’s decision would be a vote changer for some people.

“It was not a popular policy and it wasn’t going to get through the senate,” he said.