State pension rise

Perhaps we should be used to governments breaking promises by now! The triple lock was certainly a vote winner for the Conservatives back in the day though, wasn’t it?! Seem also to remember quite recently the Prime Minister promising to ‘stop the boats’ and bring immigration under control! There’s a thought! Perhaps pensions would seem more affordable if we didn’t spend billions there. Same with the foreign aid budget-often poorly targeted-apart from Ukraine whose war is being fought for all of us. But no, it’s easier to target the elderly who have actually paid into the system (no matter how flawed) than to actually do anything to benefit the citizens of this country. And the Opposition are remarkably quiet about this too so I’m not expecting a Labour government to be much better on this issue.

If they can pay millions everyday to look after illegal boat people, no, its not becoming
unaffordable

Adeline me neither and because it only affects women it’s being ignored by the government . They give money to other people they have let down but not us

omega1

I think it is so unfair that there is a two tier pension system with older pensioners getting much less than new pensioners. We all have the same bills and outgoings so we should all receive the same pension.

I totally agree with you Omegal. I worked all of my life since 16 till 65 and only taking 3 months off when I had each of my two children. I was never in the fortunate position to be able to be a stay at home mum and now I get £60 less than new pensioners - how is that fair, and with each increase the gap widens

Yes it is unaffordable for the country. But, if we had a decent pension to start with we wouldn't have needed it. So now we do or we will fall even farther behind. So either they increase the Tax Threshold which would help lots of others too and stop the moaners about pensions or they have to leave some form of "lock" so pensioners don't fall even further behind.

We have one of the lowest pensions in the world, if you have other pensions you're OK but the state pension isn't enough to live off as it is, it's not a hand out, I paid in for 40 years for mine only to be told I couldn't have it until 66, not 60

I think it is so unfair that there is a two tier pension system with older pensioners getting much less than new pensioners. We all have the same bills and outgoings so we should all receive the same pension.

I think the triple lock will survive till after the GE as the Tories rely on pensioner votes but after then who knows? Lots of people need it. I think they will find ways of whittling it down by, for example, excluding bonuses from the compared wages. They whittled down the Civil Service pension by changing from RPI to CPI indexing.

I am fortunate in having a good occupational pension but I have family and friends who only have a basic state pension to live on and they struggle, how else will they keep up with the cost of living?

Must miserable pension in Europe in real terms !!! No …it’s not unaffordable ! I don’t get it anyway….my pension went up £70 last April….my husbands care home sent a revised bill the next day , I was to Kay another £69 per month. Do it seems the triple lock doesn’t apply to me !!

Not boosting our pensions makes no economic sense. Just look at the number of pensioners shopping in garden centres having coffee etc and you'll see our contribution to the economy. Not to mention free childcare which is possible because we can afford not to "work".

MaizieD

GrannyGravy13

I honestly cannot say if I was informed by the DWP that I would be waiting an extra 6 years for my state pension, but I knew that it had changed.

I got my first full payment last month.

We all knew it would change but the change was meant to be incremental. My pension was payable 3 months after I was 60 and it was supposed to be easing in in that way over the years.

Yes! That's it exactly, MaizieD!

I knew change was coming. I knew older, male friends who were fortunate enough to get their pension earlier than 65 - there was a period when men's age was dropped.

What I did not know was how huge the increments from 60 - 65 then 66 were to be.

I categorically received no official notification about it.

Brahumbug

It is looking like there will be another bumper rise in the state pension next April. Do you think that the triple lock is becoming unaffordable?

I think some people have a strange view of "bumper".

growstuff

Urmstongran

I’m grateful for it. Almost 70y and I’ve never had any inheritance (some of my peers have had thousands ££s). Bought new cars with it, gone on cruises etc. Always worked for what we have, never claimed benefits. As a WASPI I’ve had to wait for my SP. Thousands ££s out of pocket (about £36k I worked it out once). Yes ‘enhanced’ SP now but I’ll be 79y before I’m in pocket over what I would have had before the changes - if indeed I live that long! So yes thank you I’m happy to be given a good rise.

Will the triple lock stay?

I doubt it.

If you have average life expectancy, you will live that long.

I don’t have average life expectancy. I am already past my predicted life span. When my neurosurgeon cheerfully told me how many years I still had ahead of me it seemed so far away in the distant future. I’m not the only one in this position.

GrannyGravy13

I honestly cannot say if I was informed by the DWP that I would be waiting an extra 6 years for my state pension, but I knew that it had changed.

I got my first full payment last month.

We all knew it would change but the change was meant to be incremental. My pension was payable 3 months after I was 60 and it was supposed to be easing in in that way over the years.

I can't say hand on heart how I heard about the pension age going up, but I was certainly aware of it beforehand.
I had a friend a few years older than me who received the old rate, and she was very vocal about how unfair it was that others of us would get more!
She didn't compute that we had to work an extra 5, and then 6, years and she would have had her money in the meantime.

After the initial annoyance about the age rise, I decided that as I had to carry on working it was a good opportunity to pay more money into my private pension than I'd expected to be able to do.
I'm self-employed so no occupational pension.

I'm 66, still working (though not full-time) and now receiving the full state pension as I made sure I paid enough national insurance to qualify.

Urmstongran

^I got my (smaller) state pension at 63. Do I have to count my blessings and say how lucky I am because I received my much reduced (£50 per week reduced) pension at 63? No, I think not^

But maddyone you still got 3+ years of pension earlier. About £18k in total better off than someone who had to wait all those 150 weeks you were getting it.

So yes, you were diddled too just by a lesser amount. Think how I feel (and others) at twice what ‘you lost’. No wonder we got put onto enhanced SP payments but it will take 12 years to make up our ‘lost’ amount compared to the lower, ordinary pensions. Now that really does rankle.

Urmston
I totally agree with your post, every last word of it. I think you’ve been treated appallingly by the government, but I actually think that all is WASPI women have been treated badly. I feel particularly aggrieved to have missed out on the new state pension by exactly three weeks, because that will now affect me for the whole of the rest of my life. For just three weeks! But that doesn’t mean I don’t have total sympathy for those in your situation; many of my friends are in that in that situation.

As for those who insist we were all informed of the changes, you’re wrong! I was informed by letter of the first change to my pension age. I was told my new pension age would be 61. I was never informed of the second change to my pension age. I found out by doing a search online that my new pension age would be 63. Of course I saw news items about this, which I assume is what made me check on the Government site for my new pension age. I didn’t read newspapers. I was teaching full time, involved in after school meetings, and planning and preparation. When I came home I was continuing to do school work most evenings. I was also a mother to three children who needed care. I spent my weekends washing, doing housework, shopping, and involved in things to do with my children. Luckily my teacher husband shared much of the domestic duties and childcare with me, alongside his heavy load as deputy head and teacher at a school for 11-18 year olds. We were busy. We didn’t watch television or read newspapers, but we did listen to the evening news bulletins. Maybe other Gransnetters were busily raising children and working in a full time career as we were. I’m surprised anyone living such a life had the time to sit reading newspapers!

The lack of empathy on here is shameful.

The DWP manages to inform me of what is going on with my pension every year. It doesn't rely on me reading about increases in the media and online.

Such an important change as a alteration to the previously known pensionable age should have been notified to the people affected. As the Ombudsman clearly acknowledges.

Defending maladministration by the DWP looks very strange.

I am older than the WASPI women so my retirement age was not affected. I am not exercised by the monetary loss, but I think the failure to inform officially was disgraceful.

maddyone

I am, like you Callistemon, on the old state pension. I missed getting the new state pension by precisely three weeks, because my birthday is in March, and on April 6th the new state pension was introduced (I forget which year.) That really does rankle with me. I paid all my contributions but I was born three weeks too soon. To be honest I find the whole system absolutely disgraceful. We pay older pensioners £50 per week less than we pay younger pensioners! I suppose someone will come along and say, well they got their pension at sixty. Well they’d be wrong! I am also a WASPI woman. I got my (smaller) state pension at 63. Do I have to count my blessings and say how lucky I am because I received my much reduced (£50 per week reduced) pension at 63? No, I think not. I worked, I paid for my pension the same as everyone else. I waited three years more to receive my pension, whereas my lovely friend from school, who also waited for her pension, is able to claim the higher rate pension because she is three months younger than me.
Fair? Generous? There’s nothing fair or generous about the state pension at all!

maddyone at least someone sees my point! I'm sorry that you seem to have fallen into the worst of the gaps.

People might say "Well, you could have carried on working" but that wasn't always possible.

I do think that the State Pension age should have been changed to the same for bith men and women but think it should be earlier than the current proposals.

64?

I'm not sure, either I was ignorant, half asleep or away with the fairies but I don't remember being informed.
(Both my parents never reached pension age so I used to close my ears to anything related to it anyway.) Now I'm on the way to it, it all seems more relevant! 🤣
That first payment must have been exciting GrannyGravy13!

Pile on anyone?

I honestly cannot say if I was informed by the DWP that I would be waiting an extra 6 years for my state pension, but I knew that it had changed.

I got my first full payment last month.

Sorchame

*growstuff*, nowadays, mainly through online sources, which were not anywhere near (if at all) as available as they are today.

For sure, if Gransnet/Mumsnet existed then, the changes wouldn't have passed me by.

Social media hardly qualifies as as adequate source of news and information. I hope you at least read an online news service or a newspaper online and watch, say Channel 4 News.

I, too, can remember seeing news items and publicity about the pension age going up, in the 1990s. It didn't affect me but my sister is seven years my jumior and she just missed the increased age by a month or two.

How many times have we read people on GN boasting of how little news media they read. There is such a thing as culpable ignorance.

Sorchame
So if you rely mainly on online sources for information about what’s going on here and around the world, and admit that much less information was available online back in the 90s, just how informed were/are you? Did/do you not read newspapers, watch the news and current affairs programmes on tv or listen to them on the radio? Did you just expect someone to present you with information, as apparently Aveline did?