Old State pension v New State pension

kuepper

Until today's Budget details I'd never realised there was so much difference between them, about £250 a month. How can this be justified when someone on the new pension could have made fewer contributions than someone on the old. Seems highly inequitable, was the change never challenged in the courts?

TadleyBaggie

It's not that cut and dried. Someone on the old scheme could in theory getting way more that the flat new scheme if they were in SERPS and SSP. I'm currently getting over £250 pw because of this.

QrizB

kuepper said:

Seems highly inequitable, was the change never challenged in the courts?

The new pension pays out less money overall (it was intoduced to save the Treasury money), so the average new pensioner is worse off than they would otherwise have been.

Some individuals are winners, other are losers, but collectively they're worse off.

p00hsticks

As Tadley Baggie says it;s far more nuanced that the headline amounts.

For example, as both my parents reached SPA under the old scheme, my mother inherited pretty much all dad's State Pension when he died, and she now gets close on £300 a week  - that couldn't happen under the new rules, and it's considerably more than I can possibly achieve under the new scheme.