MSE News: State pension could rise to £140 a week

dunstonh

Stargazer57 wrote: »

Gosh, has Hutton done a report on State Pensions as well as on public sector pensions? Do you have a link?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4482528.stm

It was 2006 when they reported. So, thats why you are not seeing info on it now.

Well, it doesn't look great for single people. Half of what a couple gets?

No different to how it is now then. Remember that one is half of two. So, a couple is two people. Two people who have qualified for state pensions under the current system already get double what a single person does. Its only those that dont qualify for full entitlement that get less than double.

Stargazer57

dunstonh wrote: »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4482528.stm

It was 2006 when they reported. So, thats why you are not seeing info on it now.

No, the reason I'm not seeing any info on it is that the report was by Lord Turner. You said Hutton.

And my reading of Turner is that he considered, but rejected, an enhanced state pension replacing BSP and S2P. So I don't see how you can say he "recommended" it.

Furthermore because he rejected it, he didn't give detailed consideration to the grandfathering that would be necessary. I don't think people with combined accrued state pension entitlements of over £10,000 a year are going to react very well if, as you suggest, they could fall the wrong side of a line that gives them only £7,000 a year. Some tapering, possibly as far as a no worse off guarantee, is clearly going to be necessary.

However this won't stop unscrupulous insurance salesman seeing it as a sales opportunity.

deferred_pensioner

dunstonh wrote: »

Its not really when you remember that its replacing both the basic state pension and the second state pension as well as pension credits. In fact, the single persons figure is probably lower than the current method if you take a typical basic state pension and SERPS/S2P/Graduated pension amount for an employed person.

The self employed look like the big winners here. Those contracted in look like the losers (assuming retrospective qualification - although it probably wont be).

Where have you read it will replace the second state pension.?

I hope not, I am two years away and my second pension is forecast to be circa £90 pw.

dunstonh

No, the reason I'm not seeing any info on it is that the report was by Lord Turner. You said Hutton.

LOL - Getting my lords mixed up.

And my reading of Turner is that he considered, but rejected, an enhanced state pension replacing BSP and S2P. So I don't see how you can say he "recommended" it.

Maybe I have the wrong report then. There was a report done during the Labour years that proposed a single state pension to replace the two. It was rejected (obviously).

However this won't stop unscrupulous insurance salesman seeing it as a sales opportunity.

Thankfully, there are not many of those left now.

Where have you read it will replace the second state pension.

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/pensions/government-to-raise-state-pension-and-end-means-testing/1020784.article

The plans, set to be announced in a green paper later this year, look set to combine all current elements of the state pension, including the basic state pension and the state second pension, into one payment above the current level of pension credit. The move would address the wide-spread concerns raised that Nest would be undermined by means-testing.

bryanb

dab43 wrote: »

Why? If two people who are married and have paid enough NI contributions. Why? do they not get £97.65 each. Instead of £156.16 as at present.
Are married people being discriminated against?.:(

People get a pension based on their NI contributions, there is no longer a "Married couple's pension"
Don't really understand what you mean by £156.16 as at present.
The article suggests that each will get £7280.

dab43

redglass wrote: »

Well, it doesn't look great for single people. Half of what a couple gets? A room costs the same to heat with only one person sitting in it, possibly more. Ditto with lighting, tv, rent/mortgage... Not being half of a couple, I sometimes have to pay to get jobs done that two people could manage between them, I pay 75% of the full council tax bill (despite having no kids, so not benefiting from many of the services) and of course if I want to go on holiday I'm charged more for a room. To top it all I have to listen to politicians driveling on about 'hard working families' - believe it or not, I do work pretty hard even though I'm single but my work seems to be invisible to these MPs. For years I got lumbered with all the awkward shifts at my workplace while others said,'Oh no, I couldn't possibly...I've got children' when to my knowledge the time was sometimes not spent with the kids at all, but on going out for the evening. There are many, many people living alone in the UK and I'm surprised we don't stick up for ourselves more. OK, rant over but sometimes I get fed up with it...

I was not having a go at single people, just asking why when two married people, the first of which gets £97.65, and the second gets £58.50. When they have both contributed , for 30 or 40 years.
Would you accept this if you were married,also you choose to be single.
Seems to me that it would pay to get divorced and live together as two single people.

dab43

bryanb wrote: »

People get a pension based on their NI contributions, there is no longer a "Married couple's pension"
Don't really understand what you mean by £156.16 as at present.
The article suggests that each will get £7280.

If you read the main article by MSE a single person gets £97.65, a married couple gets £156.15.........................

bryanb

dab43 wrote: »

I was not having a go at single people, just asking why when two married people, the first of which gets £97.65, and the second gets £58.50.

Where do you get these figures?

bendix

dab43 wrote: »

If you read the main article by MSE a single person gets £97.65, a married couple gets £156.15.........................

main articles by MSE Guy are universally known not to be worth reading.

That guy could make a b*ggar's muddle out of a knock knock joke. MSE journalism is based entirely on sensationalist headlines, non-stories and conjectures about what could happen.

if that's journalism, I'm a banana.

bryanb

dab43 wrote: »

If you read the main article by MSE a single person gets £97.65, a married couple gets £156.15.........................

If it says that with regard to pension (not pension credit) it is nonsense.

Edit, just read it, you are right, However I am a married pensioner and assure you the figure of £156.15 is wrong £97.65 is correct.

Since April of this year it has not been possible to claim extra pension for an adult dependant (wife), people now get pensions based on their own contributions whether they are married or not.

Further edit, BBC is also quoting the £156 figure, I'm still sure it finished in April.