MSE News: £140-a-week state pensions on the cards

Rupert_Bear

According to the Money Mail today they say it will not start until after 2015 but the date will be announced on the 23 March 2011 with the rest of the budget details. However as I have yet to receive my state pension which would be in early September 2015 I like many others would be really p...sed off to find I would not qualify for the new flat rate. Also I have paid more the number of ni years to qualify.

Mildreth

DWP spokeswoman says: "The state pension system now says you need 30 years' NI contributions to get a full basic state pension."

If 30+ years of NI contributions have been amassed, is there any advantage in working to add more, or can I happily now retire and live off my savings, safe in the knowledge that when I reach the retirement-age-of-the-time my full state pension will be in the bag? Also, is there any likelihood of the no. of years of NI contributions required, rising in the next 14 years or so before I reach retirement age, thereby landing me in a pensionless predicament? :undecided

Rupert_Bear

Mildreth wrote: »

DWP spokeswoman says: "The state pension system now says you need 30 years' NI contributions to get a full basic state pension."

If 30+ years of NI contributions have been amassed, is there any advantage in working to add more, or can I happily now retire and live off my savings, safe in the tknowledge that when I reach the retirement-age-of-the-time my full state pension will be in the bag? Also, is there any likelihood of the no. of years of NI contributions required, rising in the next 14 years or so before I reach retirement age, thereby landing me in a pensionless predicament? :undecided

The only thing is if you do not continue with your ni contributions you would problably not able to get job seekers allowance or sickness benefit.

However if you do not intend to work and you have the full 30 years contributions I personally see no point in paying any more.

Eco_Miser

dunstonh wrote: »

They have been increased already. They are not set to be increased again. If you ask a 30 year old to get a state pension forecast it will be to age 68. Not 65. These changes have happened. The wording of "set to increase" suggests a further increase is due.

The state pension age for men today, and until December 2018 is 65. Therefore it has not increased yet, but is set to increase from December 2018. Yes, a 30-year old will not be getting his state pension until he is 68, but that is 38 years in the future, so hasn't happened yet.
Possibly you are so involved in planning for the future, that you are forgetting that actual retirements are still happening at 65 or less.

dunstonh

Possibly you are so involved in planning for the future, that you are forgetting that actual retirements are still happening at 65 or less.

I think that would be impossible to forget.

The state pension age for men today, and until December 2018 is 65.

You are playing semantics. If you say it is set to increase then effectively you are going to be saying that for the next thirty years. At this time, everyone has a state pension age based on their date of birth and that age is not set to be increased. The increases have already happened.

WishI'dReadSooner

Rupert_Bear wrote: »

According to the Money Mail today they say it will not start until after 2015 but the date will be announced on the 23 March 2011 with the rest of the budget details. However as I have yet to receive my state pension which would be in early September 2015 I like many others would be really p...sed off to find I would not qualify for the new flat rate. Also I have paid more the number of ni years to qualify.

I'm due to retire May 2014. IF this comes in in 2015 I'd be sorely tempted to put off retirement until I'd qualify for the updated payment (presumably I would?) as it would be a HUGE increase. I wonder if they'd also let you claim the extra 1% every 5 weeks you defer??

Rupert_Bear

WishI'dReadSooner wrote: »

I'm due to retire May 2014. IF this comes in in 2015 I'd be sorely tempted to put off retirement until I'd qualify for the updated payment (presumably I would?) as it would be a HUGE increase. I wonder if they'd also let you claim the extra 1% every 5 weeks you defer??

Very good point and something I never thought of. All any of us can do is speculate until details are announced on the 23.3.11.

down

As we have bought our State Pension through payment of NI why should we be taxed on it as we have already paid tax on the money used to buy it?

bilbo51

down wrote: »

...as we have already paid tax on the money used to buy it

No you haven't.

tangojulie

I too am due to retire soon(ish) and have been waiting for the proposals to be clarified.

I confess I don't really understand the argument for not including existing pensioners in the new scheme. It seems to be "we have to have a cut off somewhere" combined with "it has to be affordable".

Wasn't it part of the plan that it would be funded by simplifying the whole thing and abolishing means tests etc? If so then what will happen to people already dependent on additional payments - will they continue to get them (in which case there will still be a need for the existing system, in parallel to the new one, which will surely be more costly), or are they expected to just suffer a drop in income?

Here's my simplistic take on it:

Calculate the projected savings from simplifying the system
Estimate the number of people already receiving pensions at the projected start date
Estimate the number of future pensioners after the start date
Share the pot out equally
Announce what new weekly pension this would fund - probably not £140 as it's got to cover more people, but probably more than is currently in payment.

Sadly too late for that now.... but surely we owe it (or something like it) to our existing pensioners?