New effort to boost women's state pension

margaretclare

EdInvestor wrote: »

The first time this Bill was presented it ran out of time and was dropped. Interesting it's back again. There's no doubt in my mind that women have been severely disadvantaged under the old state pension rules, and now more of them are getting to realise it. It's hard to know how many women the Bill would help if passed however.

Approx 35% of women don't qualify for the full SRP at present, so in theory, 65% of women would benefit. BUT this doesn't come into effect until 2010, and the 'small stamp' option was abolished for any woman who married after 6th April 1978, that's 32 years back. So it may be only those women who were married and working more than 32 years ago in 2010.

Nice to be in a minority - I'm in that 35%!

EdInvestor

More details:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/retirement/article.html?in_article_id=456019&in_page_id=6&ct=5

PasturesNew

You can write all you like, I'll never understand any of it to be honest.

I'll see what happens when I retire. Until then I'll just be in the dark.

And it will all have changed by then anyway.

EdInvestor

margaretclare wrote: »

BUT this doesn't come into effect until 2010

The reports suggest it's effective immediately - but the problem is, it only applies to women retiring from after April this year up to 2015.

IMHO it should be apllied to ALL women, including those already retired.

glitterkitty

EdInvestor wrote: »

The reports suggest it's effective immediately - but the problem is, it only applies to women retiring from after April this year up to 2015.

IMHO it should be apllied to ALL women, including those already retired.

information that was supplied to us at the NI contributions office today is that IF this passes parliament (which it hasnt and it also needs Royal Assent which it doesnt have yet) it wont come into place until April 2009.

[Deleted User]

I retired 9 months ago so I have missed out

EdInvestor

Should have no problem passing Parliament as it's Govt sponsored.

Here's the DWP press release stating the terms.:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/mediacentre/pressreleases/2008/oct/pens086-241008.asp

glitterkitty

all it is is basically an addition to the 2007 Pension Reform.

danny69

what I dont understand is how it is just £2500 to get £18 a week more in pension. If every £2500 I paid in NI contributions earned me £18 a week on my pension, I would be pleased! I think ti should be set at a higher 'buy in' than that. Also, if these omen had gone out and had a job for these 6 years then they would have had to pay tax aswell, so £2500 is a very cheap amount. The government gets £2500 and has to pay out £1000 roughly a year. The taxpayer then has to foot the bill! What they should do is charge women a higher rate of NI (therefore having to accumulate less 'years' of contributions) or they should make it so that it costs more than £2500!

EdInvestor

danny69 wrote: »

what I dont understand is how it is just £2500 to get £18 a week more in pension. If every £2500 I paid in NI contributions earned me £18 a week on my pension, I would be pleased! I think ti should be set at a higher 'buy in' than that. Also, if these omen had gone out and had a job for these 6 years then they would have had to pay tax aswell, so £2500 is a very cheap amount. The government gets £2500 and has to pay out £1000 roughly a year. The taxpayer then has to foot the bill! What they should do is charge women a higher rate of NI (therefore having to accumulate less 'years' of contributions) or they should make it so that it costs more than £2500!

If you think voluntary class 3 conts are a good deal, check out the offer for the self employed of both sexes .

Then you could go and have a look at the way women were cheated out of accumulating NI years in the past such that only a third of them are eligible for the full state pension.That's compared with 87% of men.

Or perhaps you think it better that the taxpayer funds these women with means-tested benefits rather than giving them a decent pension?