Category: #ToryPensions

#ToryPensions

Rise in women’s state pension age prompts poverty concerns

From The Guardian: The state pension age for women rises to 65 today to match men for the first time, reaching a milestone that has prompted warnings from campaigners that the pace of equalisation has left some female retirees facing poverty.

The equalisation of the state pension age at 65 is the first step towards a rise to 66 for both sexes in two years (October 2020), and a planned further increase to 67 starting from 2026. Another rise to 68 from 2039 was recommended by the official Cridland review this year, which will hit workers currently in their late 30s and early 40s.

The accelerated timetable for equalising then raising the state pension age has hit women especially hard, according to the campaign group Waspi (Women against state pension inequality), with about 3.8 million women born in the 1950s forced to wait up to an extra six years to receive a state pension.

In protests outside parliament last month, Waspi said a lack of sufficient information about the rise meant many women did not find out about it until they reached 60, leaving them with no time to make alternative plans.

The former pensions minister Ros Altmann said: “The state pension age may be equalising but there is no pensions equality for women.”

[Read full article on Guardian website…]

Tories plan to axe state pension “triple lock” from 2020

From ThisIsMoney.co.uk: The Tories will axe the ‘triple lock’ guarantee from 2020, meaning older people could eventually get smaller annual state pension rises if Theresa May wins the election.

The Conservative Party would switch to ‘double lock’ increases in three years’ time, so the state pension would no longer rise by a minimum of 2.5 per cent each year, but by whichever is the highest of inflation or annual earnings growth.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have promised to keep the triple lock for the whole of the next parliament. But the newly-released Conservative manifesto says: ‘We will keep our promise to maintain the Triple Lock until 2020, and when it expires we will introduce a new Double Lock.

[Read full article on ThisIsMoney.co.uk…]

Poorest face ‘double whammy’ if Tories ditch triple lock on pensions

From The Observer: Plans to ditch the triple lock on the basic state pension would represent a “double whammy” for the poorest pensioners, many of whom have already lost out under this month’s new flat-rate pension, according to a leading pension expert.

Pensioners who rely on the state pension for most of their income will be the biggest losers should the Tories drop the element of the triple lock that guarantees annual rises of at least 2.5%.

Chris Noon, a partner at leading pensions consultancy Hymans Robertson, said linking increases to earnings growth or inflation would, over time, erode the value of the pension and push larger numbers of people into poverty on reaching retirement age. He said: “The low paid were the community most negatively affected by the significant changes to the state pension introduced from April 2016. Removing the 2.5% minimum increase … is a double whammy that would again impact this community hardest over the medium to long term.”

The flat-rate state pension, worth £159.55 a week, combines the basic state pension with pension credit and the state second pension, which previously rewarded low-paid workers with generous top-up payments. Estimates put the savings at £8bn by the end of the parliament. Ending the triple lock would come on top of this cut.

[Read full article on Guardian website…]