Pensions

Airwave!

When will pensions be adjusted to that of the National Living Wage, i.e. deemed to be enough to live on?

dreamdaisy

In a word? Never. I suspect that the state pension will be phased out, it will be up to those in work to provide for their future and, as people are living longer, one's retirement could be as long as one's working life.

Incidentally, The Spouse is paying huge sums in extra tax to Her Majesty's Bloodsuckers on tax for his pension which he is not receiving and won't be for another seven years. DD

Slosh

Pensions are protected by the government against cuts and are linked to inflation in terms of rises. The government won't cut any pensioner benefits as they don't want to loose the pensioner vote hence the fact that all the welfare cuts are made elsewhere including to disability benefits.

Airwave!

The government have already cut pensions.

I always thought that if you paid for a pension then it was a done deal, apparently not. The reduction in pension is a fact for approx 2/3 of those expecting a pension. Is it our fault we have RA/OA etc and can't work enough years to pay a full NI contribution?

tkachev

Its 35 years of contributions now Airwave. I had a forecast a few years back and had enough NI contributions through carers and child benefit but they've now changed the rules so I'll have to check again.

I feel for those poor women who now have to work until 65-66 having prepared and expected to retire at 60. They should have phased it in a lot slower.

Elizabeth.

[Deleted User]

Coincidence! I was just looking at this very subject to discover when I could claim my State Pension!

This A-Z of pensions is very useful
https://www.gov.uk/browse/working/state-pension

Mod Bryn

Airwave!

Yeah, I have 33 years (!) And have another 5 years to wait and can't get a forecast yet, I don't know how much I'll get, I'm not over hopeful. I'll get 33/35 ths minus the years paying 11% for a works pension so not a lot.

Other groups are saying that with these new rules only 30% or so will get the new £155 pension.

daffy2

They should have phased it in a lot slower.

This is a bugbear of mine as I'm directly affected. The increase to 65/66 goes against an assurance about giving 10 years notice of changes to pension age, but is only part of the failing. I have never been directly or officially notified of any change in my State Pension Age(SPA). I found about the change from 60 to 62 by accident, but wasn't over concerned at that stage because there was no reason to suppose that I wouldn't be able to carry on working, and reaching the necessary 30 qualifying years seemed achievable with me topping up any contributions earned through work. Just over 2 years ago I became aware that the age might have changed again, asked around and found out that it had gone up to 66. There was also mention that the 30 years might increase to 35(which would take me 2 years beyond my revised SPA) at which point, given that my health issues were becoming a factor to take into account, I started to try and find out what was going on. I couldn't get any concrete answers as the new pension bill hadn't been decided in parliament, and nobody knew, however I was told that the NI contributions increase wouldn't be a problem as I could claim off my ex husband's record for any shortfall. That has now been withdrawn( I found that out by accident, the powers that be have kept very quiet about that withdrawal). To add to the NI problem my employer's decision to change from weekly to monthly pay has withdrawn some contributions that I otherwise qualified for. So now I am faced with SPA of 66, inadequate NI record(and at the moment no idea of whether it's worth making up the shortfall, assuming I can afford the £700 odd cost for each year missing as that information isn't available until after the new pension come into force next week) no chance of claiming off my ex's record and, given my current health problems, no chance of working until 66. And I have had NO official notification of ANY of this. Apparently DWP claim they wrote to everyone who would be affected, and if we didn't get the letter it was because we hadn't given them a current address. Bearing in mind I have been employed( and therefore on HMRC records) for well over 20 years, and the DWP has written to me at each of the 3 addresses I have had in that time I don't buy that - in common with thousands of other women similarly affected.
I recently requested a pension forecast which turned out to be nothing of the sort - it was a figure of what I would receive if I was claiming the new flat rate pension now( but didn't explain that was what the figure quoted was) and no mention of how many NI qualifying years I needed to get the full rate( the pension figure quoted was about two thirds of the 2016 full rate). I have options available to me so with luck I shouldn't be totally dependent on the state pension, but thousands have no alternative.
It's a mess, but hey it's only a few thousand old women so who cares?
Apologies for the length of post!

Airwave!

Daffy2, you're in the same position as my wife, she has carried on working. Neither of us is in a good place and with no information to hand as to a forecast, we feel let down. Do we have to vote the Tories out to get a pension?

Airwave!

Daffy2, you're in the same position as my wife, she has carried on working. Neither of us is in a good place and with no information to hand as to a forecast, we feel let down. Do we have to vote the Tories out to get a pension?

daffy2

Do we have to vote the Tories out to get a pension?

Doubt it would make any difference. All parties have had several years to get to grips with this problem and have chosen not to.
The group which is going to be particularly hard hit(or is already) are those women caring for elderly and/or infirm relatives who are faced with the choice of keeping working and trying to arrange care or becoming unemployed in order to care but not having a pension for some years. Any plans they might have made based on what they knew of SPA have been thrown out the window by the most recent increase.

Airwave!

Daffy2, you make a good point there, amongst carers other ages should be included.

applerose

If you click on the link supplied by Mod Bryn, click on Get a State Pension Statement, then Apply Online, it will take you through the steps to get a forecast. I did it and it gave a forecast of what I would get if I carried on paying NI. I have a lot of years not paid up for one reason or another and can make this up by paying between £500 and £700 for each year. Don't know where that will come from. I have thought all my life I would retire at 60 but a year or so ago, I got my letter saying it will be 66. I'm still working but don't know if I'll be able to keep working till I'm 66. It did happen very suddenly and should have been phased much more slowly.