State pension age for women

OldBeanz

I am a 60 yo male and I cannot have much sympathy for the retirement ages being aligned. Equal pay was in the papers when I delivered papers while at school and females live longer as well. My retirement age has been moved on to 66.
Where the let down has been is that there was never a product allowed to fill the gap between 60 and 65/66 i.e. a female wanting to maintain the 60 retirement plan could not pay into a pension product to fill that gap until GO's recent changes. As women tend toy marry men 3/4 years older then them it was silly that nothing was done.

kidmugsy

atush wrote: »

It is a real issue, even if as i am younger it doesn't affect me.

But I wont get my US state pension until I am 67 lol

I understood that you could draw a reduced pension from 62. No?

nan26

I have been receiving help with housing benefit and with a reduction of my council tax as all i have to live on is a small private pension but i have been told i am now entitled to a state pension .
Is there a limit to what i can receive before they stop my benefits
Thanks

Paul_Herring

Going OT a bit..

I understood that you could draw a reduced pension from 62. No?

http://ssa.gov/planners/retire/applying2.html

If you start your benefits early, they will be reduced based on the number of months you receive benefits before you reach your full retirement age. If your:

• full retirement age is 66, the reduction of your benefits at age 62 is 25 percent; at age 63, it is about 20 percent; at age 64, it is about 13.3 percent; and at age 65, it is about 6.7 percent.
  
• full retirement age is older than 66 (that is, you were born after 1954), you can still start your retirement benefits at 62 but the reduction in your benefit amount will be greater, up to a maximum of 30 percent at age 62 for people born in 1960 and later.

p00hsticks

nan26 wrote: »

I have been receiving help with housing benefit and with a reduction of my council tax as all i have to live on is a small private pension but i have been told i am now entitled to a state pension .
Is there a limit to what i can receive before they stop my benefits
Thanks

There will be but I'm afraid don't know what- the council tax one in particular will depend on your specific local authority.

You will be better off starting a new thread over on the benefits board where the benefits experts are more likely to post
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=139

rather than jumping in on the middle of this one

missbiggles1

gardener_A wrote: »

Whilst it's true that the rise in SPA for women to 65 was announced many years ago, the real issue is for women like me born between 1950 & 1955.

The original plan was that our SPA would be on a sliding scale, making mine 63. Then 2 years ago that arrangement was scrapped with no notice, immediately increasing to 65 for women born after 1953.


So now I am in the very unfair situation where my friend born in late 1953 qualifies at age 63, but as my birth date is January 1954 I have to wait until I'm 65 1/2. 2 years is not long enough to revise my retirement plans to mitigate for the loss of nearly £16K.


I am not against equalising the pension arrangements for men & women but it is the way it was implemented that is wrong, the original rules should have remained until those on the sliding scale had qualified, because women born 1956 onwards already knew that the SPA was to be65 for them.


The reason for the change has been championed as being introduced to give a pension to all women including those who have taken career breaks - this very little comfort to me having worked without ANY break since age 16.


So to those who immediately dismiss this as just women moaning again - it is a real issue!

It's an issue for some but there are also many women who seem to think this has been sprung on them, which isn't really the case.

teddysmum

nan26 wrote: »

I have been receiving help with housing benefit and with a reduction of my council tax as all i have to live on is a small private pension but i have been told i am now entitled to a state pension .
Is there a limit to what i can receive before they stop my benefits
Thanks

If you live alone , you will still get the single occupant reduction on council tax, but the benefits towards the rest of the council tax and housing are income related.


Once your income goes above the level at which maximum benefits are due, the benefits begin to reduce and could actually reduce to zero, but this all depends on what your income is and also whether you have any safeguarded allowances , such as for a disability .

ognum

gardener_A wrote: »

Whilst it's true that the rise in SPA for women to 65 was announced many years ago, the real issue is for women like me born between 1950 & 1955.

The original plan was that our SPA would be on a sliding scale, making mine 63. Then 2 years ago that arrangement was scrapped with no notice, immediately increasing to 65 for women born after 1953.


So now I am in the very unfair situation where my friend born in late 1953 qualifies at age 63, but as my birth date is January 1954 I have to wait until I'm 65 1/2. 2 years is not long enough to revise my retirement plans to mitigate for the loss of nearly £16K.


I am not against equalising the pension arrangements for men & women but it is the way it was implemented that is wrong, the original rules should have remained until those on the sliding scale had qualified, because women born 1956 onwards already knew that the SPA was to be65 for them.


The reason for the change has been championed as being introduced to give a pension to all women including those who have taken career breaks - this very little comfort to me having worked without ANY break since age 16.


So to those who immediately dismiss this as just women moaning again - it is a real issue!

This is incorrect, a woman born in late 1953 get her state pension between 642/3 and 65.

patanne

I actually feel quite embarrassed for these women who get their names splashed all over the papers telling the whole country that they couldn't be bothered reading something when they were in their forties (or late thirties) which would affect them in their sixties. I remember sitting one Sunday dinner time in the early 1990s discussing the fact that my younger sister would be unaffected by this by less than 10 days, so it was no big secret. Or was the secret that we actually read or listened to the news?

bigfreddiel

gardener_A wrote: »

Whilst it's true that the rise in SPA for women to 65 was announced many years ago, the real issue is for women like me born between 1950 & 1955.

The original plan was that our SPA would be on a sliding scale, making mine 63. Then 2 years ago that arrangement was scrapped with no notice, immediately increasing to 65 for women born after 1953.


So now I am in the very unfair situation where my friend born in late 1953 qualifies at age 63, but as my birth date is January 1954 I have to wait until I'm 65 1/2. 2 years is not long enough to revise my retirement plans to mitigate for the loss of nearly £16K.


I am not against equalising the pension arrangements for men & women but it is the way it was implemented that is wrong, the original rules should have remained until those on the sliding scale had qualified, because women born 1956 onwards already knew that the SPA was to be65 for them.


The reason for the change has been championed as being introduced to give a pension to all women including those who have taken career breaks - this very little comfort to me having worked without ANY break since age 16.


So to those who immediately dismiss this as just women moaning again - it is a real issue!

Actually I do agree that this is unfair for a few in this period, but life is unfair sadly. And although it's only a couple of years in some cases I guess you just need to do whatever suits or what you can to get to the end point.

Cheers fj