Inform the debate on the effect of the equalisation of the state pension age on women

Monitor53

Can someone help please?

DWP calculator:
Friend 1 born April 1953: entitled to receive state pension from 6th July 2016.

Friend 2 born December 1953: has to wait until 6th March 2019.

So why is it such a huge difference?

to quote from latest House of Commons Library Briefing paper 29 January 2016

"...The Government .... would accelerate the increase in women’s SPA from April 2016 (when it would be 63) to reach 65 by November 2018 rather than April 2020. The increase would be phased in at a rate of three months’ increase in the SPA every four months. This compared to an increase of one month every two months under the 1995 and 2007 Acts (so that each year took two years to phase-in)."


Can anyone explain how " The increase would be phased in at a rate of three months’ increase in the SPA every four months." translates to almost 3 years actual difference for two people born the same year?

Thanks

hyubh

JezR wrote: »

Although until recently high earners have been tended to be contracted out, so won't have built up much S2P.

Plenty of higher earning employees are contracted in, and plenty of lower earning employees are contracted out (in particular, see the typical membership profile of an LGPS fund).

hyubh

missbiggles1 wrote: »

You have to reach a certain income level but that isn't the same as saying that high earners get higher state pensions.

You've lost me - are you claiming S2P is already 'flat rate' for those who pay enough NI to earn any S2P at all...?

JezR

hyubh wrote: »

Plenty of higher earning employees are contracted in, and plenty of lower earning employees are contracted out (in particular, see the typical membership profile of an LGPS fund).

That's why I called it a tendency and not an absolute. Difference starker in private sector.

missbiggles1

hyubh wrote: »

You've lost me - are you claiming S2P is already 'flat rate' for those who pay enough NI to earn any S2P at all...?

I thought my link explained it.

UKParliament

On Monday 1 February, questions were put to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions relating to recent changes to the state pension.

What support his Department has made available to women born in the 1950s who are affected by recent changes in the age at which they become eligible for the state pension.

What estimate he has made of the number of people who will receive a lower state pension under the single-tier pension.

What steps he plans to take to maintain the level of pensioners' incomes during this Parliament.

Watch the question session in full on Parliament TV.

SallyG

Will Shailesh Vara just ignore it all again?
My MP's sitting right behind him ....... seems to be struggling to keep his eyes open

To answer my own question Shailesh Vara just ignored it all again.

zagfles

Monitor53 wrote: »

Can someone help please?

DWP calculator:
Friend 1 born April 1953: entitled to receive state pension from 6th July 2016.

Friend 2 born December 1953: has to wait until 6th March 2019.

So why is it such a huge difference?

to quote from latest House of Commons Library Briefing paper 29 January 2016

"...The Government .... would accelerate the increase in women’s SPA from April 2016 (when it would be 63) to reach 65 by November 2018 rather than April 2020. The increase would be phased in at a rate of three months’ increase in the SPA every four months. This compared to an increase of one month every two months under the 1995 and 2007 Acts (so that each year took two years to phase-in)."


Can anyone explain how " The increase would be phased in at a rate of three months’ increase in the SPA every four months." translates to almost 3 years actual difference for two people born the same year?

Thanks

It's very confusing because you're looking at two moving targets. You have to remember that by increasing SPA by 3 months every 4 months, that means that every 4 months you age, you are only one month closer to SPA! Because you are 4 months older, but SPA has increased by 3 months!

Think about it. If they increased SPA by 3 months every 3 months, no-one would ever get to SPA!!

So friend 1 gets state pension on 6 July 2016 aged 63y3m.
Friend 2 is aged 62y7m at that time.

4 months later on 6 Nov 2016, friend 2 is 62y11m and state pension age is 3 months higher at 63y6m.

Carrying on:
On 6 March 2017, friend 2 is 63y3m, SPA is 63y9m.
On 6 July 2017, friend 2 is 63y7m, SPA is 64y0m
On 6 Nov 2017, friend 2 is 63y11m, SPA is 64y3m
On 6 March 2018 friend 2 is 64y3m, SPA is 64y6m
On 6 July 2018 friend 2 is 64y7m, SPA is 64y9m
On 6 Nov 2018 friend 2 is 64y11m, SPA is 65y0m
On 6 March 2019 friend 2 is 65y3m, SPA is 65y3m
There at last!!

Monitor53

Thanks Zagfles for taking the time to work all this out. As you say, very confusing with two moving targets, but you've made it simple to understand. So sadly the calculator isn't wrong; it's the speed of escalation that seems so unjust. Time to get back to the coalface.

dunstonh

There are still MPs that dont seem to realise that the increase from 60 to 65 started in 1995.

Angela Rayner, a shadow work and pensions minister, said it was “shocking” that Vara suggested jobseeker’s allowance as an alternative. [that is fair enough but....]

“This research shows that a staggering 2.6 million women are set to be affected by the government’s reforms,” she said. “By accelerating the rise in women’s state pension age and failing to communicate the changes properly, millions of families feel they have had their plans for later life ruined.

It is not millions of families. How can a shadow works and pensions minister appear to know so little about the subject.