Quote Originally Posted by Terpe View Post
I did a little research and a little 'reading between the lines' regarding the new Universal Basic State Pension.

My take on this is that there's no doubt that the proposed new State Pension represents very good news for those women who have often been unable to build up sufficient National Insurance qualifying years under the current system.

But... don't forget that the pension age for women will see a rather sudden increase
to 66 in 2020 (maybe earlier). This will save money but at the same time hit a lot of women very hard. (So maybe women deserve something back anyway).

Governments have long since said that the timetable for state pension age increases will be need to be reviewed.

Don't expect to rule out the age increases, for all, being accelerated.

Do expect any future increases to be much more closely linked to rises in life expectancy.

Don't forget that stastically it still holds true that the poorer people in society do not tend to live as long as the wealthy.

As it stands right now The current maximum state pension rate is £97.65 for singles
and £156.15 for couples. Through various means tested payments it's possible to boost harder-up and older OAPs to £132.60 a week for singles, and £202.40 for couples.
It has been suggested that abolishing the very high cost of administering this means-testing would off-set the costs for a new flat rate pension of £140 per week

The new 'auto-enrolment' pension saving is set to begin from 2012.
Chances are that any major reforms would need to start introduction before this.

My conclusion:-

As always the devil will be in the detail
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
I have no idea how this is going to be implemented but think about it, if you thought you were eligible to retire aged 60 and suddenly it's age 66 that just cost you 30,000 pounds in your life, i.e. unpaid pension, equalization is a massive penalty for women!

Yes women live longer but they also pay more in general by having to look after the kids when they are younger, early retirement is some compensation for that and is now being taken away from them.

Yes they live longer but whose fault is that?

They probably get better exercise than we do looking after the kids Good on them and they should still get to retire early.

PS

My sister retires on Friday good on her!