Bring Back Immediately State Pension at 60 for Women

Aka too true, you can't pick and choose the bits of being equal

Why should woman get a lower state pension age than men? We've strived for years to get equality, equal pay, equal opportunities, etc. I don't understand why anyone could think in the 21st century that men and woman should have different ages to receive their State Pension. So in the extremely unlikely event that the pension age is lowered to 60 then it ought to be for both sexes.

State pension is not a substitute for DLA. But DLA was only available if one became disabled before 65 and if one was disabled after that age it would be Attendance Allowance (which has no mobility element). Both DLA and AA (and also the new PIP which replaces DLA) are non-means-tested and are not earnings replacement benefits, so are paid in addition to both earnings and pension. Glad you are in good health ps and not in need of disability benefits. I fully agree with you about the injustice being done to many people with disabilities by this tough regime. Further information can be found on www.adviceguide.org.uk.

Galen thank you for the information. I am in no way any kind of authority on the benefit system other than what I pick up from friends and media. I was unaware of varying rates of mobility (or lack of it as the benefit implies). I assume from what you have said that the state pension is the substitute for disability living allowance (mobility) at age 65.
I am 65 in a couple of months but am fortunate enough to enjoy fine health. I do however feel for those not as fortunate and having to survive on meagre offerings from the state which in my humble opinion can only erode in value over time. The most vulnerable in our society should be able to expect a reasonable level of support notwithstanding what the Daily Mail and other right wing media proclaim.

Ps you're correct, but they would have to have got high rate mobility before age 65 as you couldn't claim after that age! It is now PIP and the rules for a car are different. Don't know what yet as I get my training in October! I gather it works on a points system like ESA and we all know about that!

Frank as I understand it a pensioner claiming disability and unable to afford a motorbility car is presumably not disabled to a degree to warrant the award of mobility component to the disability living allowance. It is that component that is surrendered in order to qualify for a car under the motorbility scheme. I am no expert but that is how I understand it.
As you rightly point out any pensioner without disabilities running around in a new car and living in a large house is presumably one who was prudent during their working life and provided for their retirement years but that has no bearing on the thrust of this thread which was fundamentally regarding the pension age returning to 60 for women.
It remains a fact that state pension committments are increasingly becoming unnafordable, life expectancy is increasing placing unbounded burdens on the taxpayer (which includes pensioners) and government is constantly changing the goalposts forcing people to work longer before they can draw a pension while at the same time reducing the number of years of contributions required in order to qualify for a full state pension. Something has got to give soon and I fear it will be the need to pay in more, much more, and work until 72 for men and women. In addition I see the state pension decreasing in real terms value forcing those in work to make additional private contributions to a fund in order to secure a level of pension to remain at or above the poverty line. This will of course be governments way of privatising state pension provision via the back door with minimal political fallout.
Never forget that government can stop or reduce pension payments at any time if it feels it is in the national interest to do so. Look at Greece and as vegasmags said Detroit. My belief is that pension age will rise, as will contributions through the national insurance provisions and eventually state pension will, as proposed, be capped to a one size fits all. Not a healthy state of affairs for most I feel.

Not just for those who reach 60 in next couple of years though. It's a problem for those like me aged 56 now, facing another 11 years before we get a state pension.
Trouble is where would the cut off be to please everyone?

Doubt whether it will be last either .

When we were in Detroit in September , the signs were already there !

Frank - I suppose the public sector workers in Detroit thought they had also worked hard and paid for a good pension, but now it looks as though their pensions may go bung. It's not the first city to go broke and have to renege on a promise.

ps

It is what people expect in retirement is the problem.
I have herd pensioners complaining they are disabled and can not afford Motability cars where as there are pensioners without disabilities running around in new cars and have large houses.
What they do not realise is most of the pensioners with large houses etc worked hard and paid for a good pension so there is no reason why they should not have these cars etc.

Frank

Sadly we are seeing the reactionary measures any government sitting on a time bomb will always invoke. Until the root cause of the problem is solved pension age will just keep increasing. In China the mindset is that 40 to 50% of salary must go into pension provision, somewhat different to our own.
As much as I would love our pensioners (I am one) to reap a comfortable retirement I fear our expectations are too high given our means. That means tough times ahead as living costs are on the increase and will continue to be until at least 2050 when we may be approaching saturation point for humanity on this planet given it's finite resources and the anticipated 9 to 10 billion souls on it.
Whether nature intervenes or not remains to be seen, as a plague or suchlike wiping out half the worlds population may just rebalance the demands we place on it. Lets hope we can find a way of existing in peace, health and comfort though. Research and development is a must as is GM foodstuffs. Surely it is not too much to ask that those who have contributed a lifetimes work to their country or world receive a reasonably comfortable time in their twilight years. The question that remains however is how is it to be funded?

If they do lower the state pension age to 60 for women then they should do the same for men.
I was in banking until I was 55 and got made redundant and then worked for the council for 5 years before being made redundant again.
I just have my bank pension, a small council pension, and half of my wife's occupational pension.
My wife's employers were surprised I wanted it as she died 6 years before it was payable.

Frank

I have signed this petition and have also created one.

you.38degrees.org.uk/p/statepensionlaw

Please sign and share. It seems that people have accepted the changes because "it's law".

Laws can be changed -the State Pension Law was in the first place!

Unfortunately, The changes seem to have been forgotten, despite the devastating impact upon hundreds of thousands of us. Our pension system has changed and suffered so much already with repeated raids and the moving of goalposts, meaning people cannot enjoy the retirement that they have planned for all of their working lives.

Workers in the public sector who were within 10 years of retirement were, quite rightly, given immunity from the changes. This is a case blatant discrimination. It is against the law to treat someone less favourably than someone else. It is discrimination to impose “rules” that disadvantage one group of people more than another. Therefore, surely this Government is breaking the law. It's time we made a stand.

Please sign this petition and spread the word.

Most women in their 50s who are currently unemployed are also Disabled or Long Term Sick.

From this week, many of these are threatened by losing government help in the changes brought by Welfare Reform.

The cost of welfare to the state will not decrease as people are left penniless, because the money is being moved to the private companies that are costing billions to the taxpayer. So no deficit reduction and public sector borrowing will continue to rise.

The epetition has been upgraded after the Budget and so is about gaining women their rightful money of state pension at 60, Revoking the Granny Tax and also Revoking the rise in 2017 of the years of contribution from 30 to 35 to gain full state pension.

The last two help men without partners effected by the loss of entitlement payment of state pension.

Signing the epetition might indeed bring a u-turn, as the state pension is not part of the welfare state as it is not a benefit, but a right, just like any other pension contributed by years of work. But if sufficient people sign the petition, then Labour (who started the process of the loss of state pension by the Bill passed in 1995) might change, with the hope they get in power in 2015 general election:

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

Women Pensioners Overtaxed

Women have been discriminated against by losing the higher age related tax allowance as it was not given til 65, when women's retirement age was 60. So 5 years of women pensioners' overtaxation.

Now all lose it with the Granny Tax at a time of massive price hikes in energy / heating bills that costs lives in frozen homes colder than outdoors.

Sorry, men's pension began with a written payout age at 65

The campaign cannot be for men to gain state pension at 60, as it was never written payout age since the state pension system began.

Men gained equality in 2010 by the same 30 years of contribution to gain a full state pension as women.

This is now lost to men and women coming up to the old retirement ages, as from 2017 the contribution years rise to 35 years.

And remember, before 1975 pensions were not guaranteed by law and many tens of thousands of male War Veterans never got their service pension at all to this day.

So all governments have always tried to take away from pensioners, even when the pension had a written age payout / length of contribution of this contributory pension.

Men are losing now because they are not getting their state pension at 65 and that age is rising and so they are losing about five grand a year too, between 65 and 70.

Women Lost State Pension at 60 from as far back as 1995

There is also the belief that the loss of women's retirement age at 60 is something off to future, when many of my friends and I lost our state pension at 60 back in 2008. We were told retirement at 66 back then.

This process began in 1995 with law enacted by Labour.

Politicians Care When Lots of People Sign Something

Gandhi once said, power comes from the people.

Saying no to the daylight robbery of rightful payout to 2.5 million women who lose forever £38,000 of their money taken from them between 60 and 66, has saved not one penny to the government as from April the richest 300,000 gain £40,000 annual tax break.

Lost Downloadable Petition Off my Website

My personal website will have to close soon as my savings run out and is not important anyway.

The epetition has gained impetus over the last month and has now 202 signatures.

The epetition is about state pension at 60 for women now, but also about the Granny Tax, against taxing the state pension at source and rightful payout of state pension.
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

Signed online thank you for sharing it.

I have signed the 38 Degrees petition on line.

The government will not do a u turn?
In fact this government has done many u turns if sufficient people have shown determination. Privatisation of forestry was one such example.

BRING BACK IMMEDIATELY STATE PENSION FOR WOMEN AT 60
TO: PRIME MINISTER CAMERON AND DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER CLEGG
you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/state-pension-at-60-now

On 38 Degrees you sign as an individual, not as any group.

I am gaining signatures only by writing on forums and wherever I can find on the internet. No newspapers will print my letters trying to publicise the epetition.

In 2013 unemployment benefit and benefits for the long term sick and disabled will become less and less available, at a time when the over 50s will be within an age group have seen their unemployment rate go up 50% since 2008 and we know that job recruitment is ageist.

Austerity is false and will not pay off the deficit.
We have no European debt, are not in the Euro and still contribute 10 billion each year for the running costs of European admin.

This coming budget will attack 'wealthy' pensioners (when we know life savings earn no income from interest these days and so you are paying the bills and your capital reduces each year) and the poorest people over 50, with or without a pension. For all these, if we do indeed have the threat of any winter like 1962-1963, then many of the over 50s will die of hypothermia in their unheated homes.

Men will gain by their lady partners getting their pension at 60 as well as the age related tax allowance from 60 and not taxing the state pension at source.

The pension equality failed as it now means men get their pensions years after 65.

The government has not lost state pension funds. It was an EU Directive that took over a decade of pension from men and women throughout the EEC after decades of contribution through work and a stated entitlement payment age in writing. If a private pension fund did that, it would be called 'fraud'.

Agreed 38 Degrees do seem adept at hiding the epetitions other than the few they back in the office.

To help ourselves and others who have lost state pension at 60, there is a paper downloadable form that you can collect signatures out on the street or from your local social club, family, friends, work colleagues in your lunch break (off the works premises of course) or charitable elder day care centre, from the age group in their 50s who will be the family carers, on my personal website:
www.staffordshire-vote-english.org

Fill in the details and then send via my website and I will put the details onto the 38 Degrees website and shred the forms as you will once you have emailed the details to me. Thanks.

So, it's not going to happen.
Apathy rules.
If women only did things that they knew would happen we wouldn't have the vote.
Antidiscrimination laws mean that women should be paid the same as men for equal work. That hasn't happened either.
You start work at 15 or 16, work until your 67 now, and someone along the way moves the goalposts and says you have to work until you are 70. Is that right?
I have two sisters, one 4 years younger, one ten years younger.
The middle one has worked for the post office all her life until it was closed and they were all made redundant. She will not get her state pension until she is 63. The youngest has worked in the Army, shops and healthcare since she was 16 and will not get her pension until she is 67. All wrong. Why should the rules change halfway through?
You save for a private pension and when you retire someone's lost half your money. However, the person who runs the company that lost your money is a billionaire and lives in a mansion or castle. That's not right either.

Giving the State Pension to women at 60 and men at 65 would be against anti-discrimination laws, so to have any hope of success you would need to campaign for both sexes to receive it at 60.
As Ana says, it's not going to happen.

Apathy is what this govt. wants, so I am pleased you signed.
I am fortunate that I got my state pension at 60, so I must be older than you. Even though it doubled in January, I'd rather have my husband back.
I have just read an interesting article on the NHS on the Green Benches website.
Apparently Careuk put in bids for the 111 services which are taking over from NHS direct. , and for old people's homes in Suffolk.
They lost out to a company called Harmoni, so they have bought out Harmoni.
One of the directors is Chris Patten, now chairman of the BBC.
Wheels within wheels.
The Tories know how to work the system, while we just give up.
Sign up to as much as you can.
Seeker, how do you get onto 38 degrees epetitions from their main website?
It's so confusing.
I've asked them to put a link to my epetition about private healthcare companies, but they will not. I've also asked them to have a tab to the NHS centre, but they've ignored that too.
In case you think this is off-topic, old people, pensions, NHS, we've paid into them both all our working lives.

HAVING SAID that have just signed!! you never know!! well done Seeker

sadly do not think government will do u turn, I may be about 66 before I get state pension!!

If I lost my OH god forbid I will have to sell house I reckon.

I have just signed up to it, having just found it.
Is there one on the govt. epetition website as well?
The reason that the govt. managed to ignore 38 degrees petition about the NHS was because they called us left-wingers, and Labour Party stooges.
On the govt. website, you sign as an individual.
I check it weekly to see if there are any new ones to sign up to.
38 degrees do not seem to know what they are doing at the moment and have riled a lot of members.
However, I did not know you could have an epetition on their site, and I've been on it since it started. Shows how confusing it is.

It's just not going to happen.