Does anyone know anything about the new state pension changes?

Has anyone heard more about this?

As far as I can work out I am not allowed to pay in anything under that so wellpublicised scheme of topping up NI. I am too young ,having been born in 1955.

But given what invictus has said I am wondering if its worth it anyway. I do not have a private pension as it happens but it seems to me that the government is justtrying to stop pensions , end of ( and maybe it doesnt want to pay the £140 new rate because in fact it will cost far too much?).

My Husband is due to retire in Feb 2015, so he is on the downhill now. I am gathering Invictus's comment will not apply to him and he will get the old rate pension (and keep his private one which is already in payment as he had to retire at 60 - made redundant really but they preferred to call it "early retirement" as they forced out all the older long serving staff).

But, will his pension(s) be affecting anything I may or may not get? Will the fact he has provision in his work pension for a widows pension for me if he dies mean I cant have the state pension?
Its a long way to 2021.

Lots of things could get affected here.

I think we do need an expert here.

www.theguardian.com/politics/privatisation

IDS is considering privatising the pension service in order to save money.
The same link will also give you winners and losers in the new system.

I read the article and the links durhamjan, but I think its wrong.

For a start I think my husband will more than likely be a "winner" in the long run even though he is due to retire before the changes to the new pension.

In fact I think ALL those due to retire before 2016 arelikely to be winners in the end. I think this whole idea is a government con trick.

I will be a loser despite being listed as a winner . I am female and retire under the new system and have a broken work record but I am not going to make the NI contributions for the full rate and I cannot pay back and I am not "protected" in anyway. So, I will end up losing.

I would have been a winner under the very old system ( one even my husband misses out on) as my husband would have got a married mans pension. That was what we always planned on all those years ago when I did not work. In fact that was what the DWP told me I should planon back in the 1980's and 1990's.

So, its plain rubbish I am afraid to say. I cant even plan as we are not being toldwhat my husbands situation is - and mine is unclear too. They can change everything again between now and 2021 (when I get to 66 and can officially retire).

Exactly, Maries. They tell you to plan, then pull the rug out from under you.
I benefited as I retired at 60. My husband retired at 65, but then died 6 months later, so my state pension went up by nearly 100%. No amount of planning can prepare you for that. I'd rather have him back.
If we had done what most people do with his private pension pot, we would have taken out an annuity and I would have lost half the money.
As it is, I get the full amount until he would have been 70, then I can decide what to do then. But on my own this time.
I did not benefit because I retired just before the number of years went down to 30 from 39. Therefore my pension was less than it would have been if I had been born a year later. Now they have changed the qualifying years from 30 to 35, and that's within 4 years!

MARIES

I have been looking at this thread but as I had no understanding of pensions I wouldn't post.

I did have a pension forecast about a year ago and I have just received my official notification, I get my pension in March. I will receive £147 odd and I must admit the way it was worked out went over my head, money for this, money for that, money made up here. It was however the same amount as the forecast so it is worth doing.

I have done the forecast , thanks.Thats how I know what the situation will be. I have a shortfall for the 10 years I spent working low pay and short hours in the 1980's and 90's and I didnt get the NI contributions.

I had hoped I might get the change to make them up. I cant, so no full new rate pension for me (and suspect many like me "retiring" under the new flat rate scheme). I say "retiring" but I am unlikely to still be working at 66 - my employers rules and H&S and insurance even though many would say that isnt legal.

I have just read in the paper this morning that the new rules apply to those who retire after April 5th 2015.

Now my husband retires (gets state pension) in February 2015 - so does that mean I can have his married mans allowance or not? I dont retire until 2021 ( now , since I have to be 66 before I can retire). They are so unclear on this.

The state pension changes from 2016 mean you cannot make up NI credits from then (Flat Rate Pension).

New claimants lose Pension Credit.

The additional pension of SERPS and State Second Pension also end from 2016, so no guaranteed annual rises from that.

Council workers were all taken out of SERPs, so that means any workers that ended that will not get the full Flat Rate.

Housewives will not be able to claim on their husband's state pension from 2016, their 60 per cent state pension.

Widows will not inherit husband's state pension from 2016.

Pension change no state pension at all to the lowest waged / 14 hours a week in each job (NI credits accrue separately unlike tax allowance) or less than 10 years NI credit.

Divorcees from 2016 will not be able to claim on their husband's state pension NI contributions.

People turning 80 from April 2016 will not get the only state pension they will ever have, the Category D pension, which is about £67 now.

The Flat Rate Pension only gives the flat rate (less than current pensioners get in full state pension and pension credit now) to 30 per cent new claimants.

Current Welsh pensioners already also get more, so they will get less.

Those receiving works pension and getting benefit, get both taxed, even if together below basic tax allowance. So that means any state pension you will get in future as well.

You can stay in your job or retire and find further work, and receive your state pension payout.

My petition on 38 Degrees is at, with more information in the petiton and below in the Why This is Important section:
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

Those on low works pensions, dwindling savings to pay house bills that will finish long before 66, also have to factor in that some agencies are now not giving out vouchers to food banks to those delayed or sanctioned benefits (Jobcentres notorious for these, who are referring people direct to food banks when no funds). The cheap food social supermarkets starting up, also do not sell food to anyone lost benefits.

Women MPs have kept the pension payout at 60 since 2012, with the words 'protected from reforms'.

Women's lost state pension at 60 from 2013, is going as an 11 per cent pay rise for MPs in 2015.

With the rise from 65 to 66 for men and for women from 60 to 66, lose on average £35,000 in payout for 7 years, which is obviously food money to the bulk of the population.

The benefit system is a minefield and sanctions and delays can be for months, and up to 3 years.

The parent generation (already in receipt of pension) to us women turning 60 since 2013 and 65 for men, might care to also sign my petition, to help their children losing state pension payout.

Thje nation can afford it, you will see why on my petition
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

The comment section also lists other petitions which effect you on 38 Degrees, to also sign, around pensions.

'Welsh pensioners also get more'! Do they? First I've heard of it...

If the Tories win in 2015 their plan to end National Insurance Fund and merge it with Income Tax, would blur how much money is in the pot for state pensions.

Just calling the merged tax an Earnings Tax, when Income tax only brings in 26p in the pound of tax from people. Stealth taxes are 75 per cent of all tax from people, in or out of work and however long we live.

As Tories love to cut Income Tax, then the money would decrease to pay for the state pension, already about the lowest in the developed world.

All parties are pretty much the same, believing the state pension is a benefit and not a paid for pension from the 12 percent of NI contributions over a lifetime in work, or from the 75 per cent of stealth taxes, that means the poorest have a 90 per cent tax rate.

This was reported in The Independent newspaper's front page on Monday 30 June 2014.

An article headed 'Radical Tory tax plan spells end of national insurance,
that made not one mention that without NI credits the state pension received is very small indeed,
but from 2016 is zero food money
with the Flat Rate Pension for those born:
All women born on or after 6 April 1953 and
every man born on or after 6 April 1951

This effects people who only now have realised that if each job is 14 hours a week / less than about £109 per week, (NI is reckoned on each job, unlike tax allowance on all jobs merged together)
they have not been paying National Insurance contributions.

And housewives - nil state pension from husband's contributions - 60 per cent state pension. Gone for new claimants from 2016.

Widows and divorcees also lose any state pension from husband's contributions as new claimants from 2016.

This despite husbands having paid far more than 44 years as was the old amount of contributions for full state pension. More like half a century.

So a great many poorest people will get no state pension at all if born on or after the above dates.

When factor in, that agencies are beginning not to give out vouchers to food banks to those losing benefit, which happens to the over 60s, not listed by government in unemployment statistics even despite raised retirement age, then the future is very frightening indeed.

FLAT RATE PENSION LESS FOR MOST AND FOR WALES
Welsh people: Some 84,000 people in Wales are receiving a pension higher than the level proposed by the Government, according to the Labour party. It says people entitled to such pensions stand to lose at least £10 a week.

Also remember that SERPs and State Second Pension are abolished in 2016, so no triple lock guarantee to annual rises, but also pensioners will get less from those additional pensioners from 2016.

Pensioners with state pension and pension credit already get more than the flat rate, which only 30 per cent will get anyway with the loss of SERPs and S2P.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies in its paper
'A single-tier pension: what does it really mean?
is the source of:
70 per cent will not receive the full flat rate pension amount.
This was reported in The Independent article entitled
New Pension system will be a shock for millions
edition on Saturday 10 May 2014.