State pension rise

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.

Why didn't the DWP write to those affected? That would not have been unreasonable.

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.

Sorchame

So the only way to have found out was to read about it in the press...and tough luck if you didn't?
The lack of empathy shown is pretty sad...

So how do you personally find out what's going on in the world?

Chardy

Germanshepherdsmum

There was a great deal of publicity about the rise in pension age. There’s no excuse for not having known it was going to happen.

The increase is linked to inflation Casdon, as I’m sure you know. It’s not like being awarded a salary increase because of good performance - we had those when we were working. Now those who are working pay for our state pensions.

There was a great deal of publicity - I've heard that so many times. Who in the 1990s told 50s women when they could retire?
SPA was going up 5yrs across the 2010s. Nice simple maths
eg 2011 SPA 61
2013 SPA 62...
Did it work like that? No. Because no-one said how it was going to work.

Newspapers and TV news told people in the 1990s that pension age for women was rising to 65. There were published charts, which weren't difficult to understand. I remember hearing/reading about it and very quickly checking the details because I was one of the first women to be forced to wait until 65. I also remember the heart-sinking feeling.

Sorry, but I honestly think that if people take so little notice of major changes which affect them personally, I wonder how much notice they take of anything which doesn't affect them directly. Fine, if people want to live in a bubble, but how do they make informed decisions at election times and when commenting on the lives of others, if they don't understand the world outside their bubble?

The 2011 changes were slightly different because they gave much less notice (just over 10 years) and were part of a whole package of pension changes, including Jobseekers Allowance for over 60 year olds.

Actually, the old pension is £60 per week less.

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!

Sorry, mistype.

For 35 years contributions the old State Pension is just £140.18 per for 35 years of contributions.

The new State Pension is £203.85 a week (for 35 qualifying years).

The old State Pension for 35 qualifying years is £156.18 a week.
Even receiving a 10.1% increase pa means those on the old State Pension receive proportionately far less and will fall further and further behind. Many will be women who will consequently become more impoverished.

The pension rise is made up of two parts: the main pension rise that everyone gets and then Pension credit for those on small pension incomes.

As long as the Pension credit keeps in line with inflation I would be quite happy for pensions just to rise with average working incomes

10.1% was generous compared to the rise in earnings, even if it was the result of ridiculously high inflation. The state pension is low compared to many European countries but it also reflects the lower amount we contribute to it. What we need is a discussion on what level the pension should be, such as linked to average earnings for example, and use the triple lock to raise it to the agreed level and maintain it at that point.

As previously stated the Ombudsman said we were not given sufficient notice.

Germanshepherdsmum

There was a great deal of publicity about the rise in pension age. There’s no excuse for not having known it was going to happen.

The increase is linked to inflation Casdon, as I’m sure you know. It’s not like being awarded a salary increase because of good performance - we had those when we were working. Now those who are working pay for our state pensions.

There was a great deal of publicity - I've heard that so many times. Who in the 1990s told 50s women when they could retire?
SPA was going up 5yrs across the 2010s. Nice simple maths
eg 2011 SPA 61
2013 SPA 62...
Did it work like that? No. Because no-one said how it was going to work.

Strange that the powers that be always notify you if you owe them.

Same here, I was told as someone somewhere sent me a letter, my coworker the same she's just 2 days younger than me.

Could have been as we were NHS worker and they came from our Payrole?
Did other Government employees also received the same? I'm sure I read it in the press as well.

Clearly remember us having a moan as it had already gone from 60 - 62 to 67.

However we were lucky as both of us had NHS final salary pensions.

Caravansera

Another WASPI.

Next year’s increase is likely to be 8.5%.

www.pensionsage.com/pa/state-pension-set-for-substantial-increase-under-triple-lock.php

It may seem generous percentage wise. In real terms, for someone on the full rate on the new state pension (203.85 or £10,804 pa) the raise will be £17.32 a week before tax, £13.85 after tax. Many state pensioners do not receive the full rate.

By comparision, the latest government data, published in August 2023, reveals that the mean average UK weekly wage, excluding bonuses, is £613 gross equivalent to an annual pre-tax salary of around £31,876 ...

making the full weekly state pension around a third of average weekly wages.

Latest report from ageUK (June2023) shows that 18% of pensioners (over 2 million) are living in poverty.

www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/reports-and-publications/reports-and-briefings/money-matters/poverty-in-later-life-briefing-june-2023.pdf

The UK government spends a lower percentage of its GDP on pensions that other European countries, lower than Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, The Netherlands.

Many state pensioners do not receive the full rate

Those of us on the old scheme will get nowhere near that amount even with 39 years worth of contributions for women, 42 years for men.
Most women will not have paid in for 39 years.

Every percentage rise means we fall further behind.

So the only way to have found out was to read about it in the press...and tough luck if you didn't?
The lack of empathy shown is pretty sad...

I wonder which newspapers some people read. It didn’t apply to me but I was fully aware of the increase in state pension age.

And just to add to my previous post, the very last letter from The Department of Works and Pensions that I received, stated that I had more than enough years of contributions to receive the full state pension upon my retirement at 60.

So why would I not have expected to receive a letter informing me of any change?

I’ll be grateful still got two years three months to go not counting!

Another Waspi here, I started to get my state pension 5 months ago.
I worked until I was 66,contracted out so like the poster upthread, do not get the full amount of the new state pension as I have a Occ Pen.
I am pleased to be getting the triple lock amount in April 24 as the cost of living is going up.

I'm 64, so another WASPI.

I paid N.I. like everyone else during my working life, for my parents generation state pension. Without a murmur I add...

So when, and how, have the tables turned, that the younger generation begrudge, or are being influenced to begrudge, the same for us?

And that those women who received their pensions at 60 joining in the melee?

I absolutely rely on notification from the powers that be, to personally inform of material change.

I have kept every letter sent me by the Department of Works and Pensions, Social Security, HMRC et al, since I started work at the age of 17, yet did not receive one informing me of the change to my state retirement age.

I am not stupid, ill informed or unread. It makes me so angry that there are those that say I should have known, and ignorance is no excuse. How does anyone know what they should know without being informed?? Crazy...

Germanshepherdsmum

When the triple lock goes you’ll remember it as generous Casdon.

No, I won’t, I’ll remember it as the period when pensions, whilst by no means generous, kept up with rising inflation and wages. That’s all they are doing.
It’s erroneous to suggest it’s generous because all it means is that people who have no other income don’t fall further behind. I’m very glad that I’m not in that position.

Cutting the pension rise isn’t going to improve our standing in the world as far as benefits are concerned.

Margiknot

The state pension is not generous and should go up with inflation wherever possible. I appreciate it is not always possible to mirror inflation perfectly, just as wages and benefits can struggle to keep up. State pensioners paid into NI for decades to get their pensions. I do not think of it as a benefit. Many state pensioners have no extra income and are not fit enough to work to top up their pension.

But the state pension is a benefit, whatever you think.

Why is there such a stigma surrounding the word benefit that some people go through mental hoops to deny the state pension for what it is?