MSE News: David Cameron - We will give pensioners security and dignity

MonyeyPenny

But I still can't find any facts about how the following will affect those of us born after the key dates in the 1950's.


"The full amount of the new State Pension will be at least £148.40 a week, but how much you get depends on the National Insurance contributions you have made".


This is still too vague, and has been too vague for too long. I guess this will have a huge impact on many people.

luxor4t

MonyeyPenny wrote: »

I read this article with great interest, hoping that at last we would get to know how much State Pension we are likely to receive, if born after those key dates in the 1950's.


Unfortunately, we are not being told anything new here - "The full amount of the new State Pension will be at least £148.40 a week, but how much you get depends on the National Insurance contributions you have made".


The headline amount of £148.40 sounds great, but not if you opted out of SERPS, or for any other reason haven't paid the full amount of NI contributions. I've been watching out for information on this for nearly a couple of years now, and still we don't know what will happen. When are they going to tell us?

I am in a similar position.


Without that knowledge, I am unable to plan effectively as I have less than 10 years till my 66th birthday. I cannot be confident that that I am making the right financial and employment choices.


6th April 2016 is getting closer - surely Cameron and Co have decided the exact figures for the 'adjustments' by now!

MalcBridge

The changes made, and proposed insofar as we can tell what they are, might slightly simplify the system (which is welcome) but seem unlikely to make much difference to pensioners' actual incomes.

The point with which I should particularly like to take issue, however, is the proposal to allow pension pots to be passed tax-free to next of kin. This is money that has been saved tax-free and, while taxing it at 55% is difficult to justify when the highest rate of income tax is 45% and most people pay only 20%, to allow it to be passed on tax-free is equally unfair as it means that those of us who do not have large (or any) pension pots will have to pay more to subsidise the next of kin of those (the very rich) who do. As someone has already said, this was basically a party political broadcast on behalf of the Nasty Party.

On a (just) related theme. Wouldn't it be fairer to charge Inheritance Tax on the recipients of bequests, thus varying with their financial status, rather than on the estate?

uneasy

Great party political article there on behalf of the Conservative Party.

I guess expecting the multi-millionaire founder of MSE to support any other party is like expecting turkeys to vote for Christmas.

I'm just left wondering if MSE will be giving an equal opportunity to the others taking part in the by-election tomorrow?

Or is this just an attempt to halt a new UKIP candidate trouncing his former party again?

The full list of candidates standing for election in next week's Rochester and Strood by-election, in alphabetical order by surname, is:

Barker, Mike - Independent
Challis, Christopher - Independent
Davidson, Hairy Knorm - Official Monster Raving Loony Party
Fransen, Jayda - Britain First Party
Goldsbrough, Stephen William - Independent
Gregory, Clive - Green Party
Juby, Geoff - Liberal Democrats Party
Khan, Naushabah - Labour Party
Long, Nick - People Before Profit Party
Osborn, Dave - Patriotic Socialist Party
Reckless, Mark - UK Independence Party
Rose, Charlotte - Independent
Tolhurst, Kelly - Conservative Party

mancmum

You asked what we thought about Cameron posting. Well I think if posters raise legitimate questions Cameron should be pinned down for answers by MSE.

I am afraid I still remember how strongly you backed the new student loans regime even though now only 3 years in we are being told its a disaster.

My question relates to the end of widows rights on husband's contributions. My husband will draw a pension on 1st July 2018. Will I lose rights to benefits built up in SERPs as a widow? If his Serps benefits are better than the flat rate pension can he and I keep them? Benefits are not just to the contributor but also to the spouse.

Dephead2004

MonyeyPenny wrote: »

But I still can't find any facts about how the following will affect those of us born after the key dates in the 1950's.


"The full amount of the new State Pension will be at least £148.40 a week, but how much you get depends on the National Insurance contributions you have made".


This is still too vague, and has been too vague for too long. I guess this will have a huge impact on many people.

Well I have an answer in writing and confirmed by DWP verbally.

I should benefit from the new state pension by virtue of age ie £148 ish.

My projected pension statement says that I will receive £22.01 a week (Yes £22.01) instead of the headline figure of around £148+.

This is because I paid a reduced contribution down from 12% to 10.6% apparently as a public servant for 35 years

Kindly(?) the Gvt. will protect my pension at the OLD existing state pension rules of £114.41 pw.

This is another scandal waiting to happen. When more people get their statements they will realise that this new state pension promise has many caveats.

System

starkj wrote: »

This was a party political broadcast on behalf of the Nasty Party.

To show impartiality do we get a response from other parties?

Exactly - and the fact that it was posted the day before an important By Election is even more reprehensible. MSE should be apolitical. I hope that invitations have gone out to the other Party Leaders - but I doubt it.

bmm78

I don't have a problem with giving Cameron a platform to express his views (as long as the same courtesy is extended across the board).

I do however think that MSE has a duty to highlight any inaccuracies and ambiguity in his article:

• In the long run many people will be worse off with the new single tier pension
• The majority of death benefits from pensions will be taxed on withdrawal
• Compulsory annuitisation was scrapped many years ago

buzzard

The important thing not stated here is "in the longer term, the new system will be less generous to just about everyone than the system that it is replacing. " from the Institute of Fiscal Studies, not known for producing reports unfavourable to the government.

The headline figure is a cynical ploy to win the grey vote by misrepresenting what people with receive and most people are not financially literate enough to spot the difference.

I am part of the group that Cameron thinks he get votes from - does he really think we don't care that the NHS is being sold off so that the quality of care will diminish. Does he think we dont care that our children are in debt all their lives for an education that can mean as little as 3 contact hours a week? Does he think we don't realise that he has offshore money and despises anyone who doesn't?

It annoys me immensely that the current leader of the Labour Party does not point to the choice between greed (the Nasty party and fellow travellers) or a fair days work for a fair days pay. Or to the difference between tax avoiders and taxpayers.

Pincher

The old carrot that gets dangled in front of you and you never reach. By the time I retire, They will have moved it to 70 years old, probably.


It's a great system for the unemployed. If they move official retirement age to 70, say, they will continue to get Income Credit till 70, and get NI credit all the time. In fact, what case worker is going to hassle a 60 year old to get a job? So if all you need to is get 30 years of NI contribution, you can get made redundant around the age of 50, sign on, and just live on Income Credit to ensure full state pension.


I have to buy 9 years of NI to get to 30 years.
I have property income, but not "earned" income, so I pay "income" tax, but don't get a refund if I make pension contributions. The system basically expect me to pay, pay and pay again, so thank you, thank you and no thanks.


If you see a dead donkey on the road, with a carrot tied to a stick, it won't be me.