An emerging online petition advocates for equitable treatment, urging all individuals over retirement age to receive the updated State Pension weekly rate of £221.20, highlighting the disparity faced by those who reached retirement before April 6, 2016, currently eligible for only £169.50 weekly.
Petitions Call for Equal State Pension: Demand for Fairness in Pension Payments
The State Pension is currently providing regular financial assistance for nearly 12.7 million elderly people across the nation, including over one million retirees residing in Scotland. The amount that someone receives depends on the number of qualifying National Insurance years they have made — at least 10 are required for any State Pension payment and around 35 for the complete rate, although people who have been ‘contracted out’ may need more.
Petition creator, WASPI woman Elaine Whatmough, thinks that “it is not right that pensioners who are on the new pension can get over £200 a month more”.
The ‘Give all state pensioners the new State Pension’ petition includes: “I’m a WASPI woman that was affected by State Pension change like plenty of other Women and also missed out on the new State Pension on the 6th April 2016. I believe it is not right that pensioners who are on the new pension can get over £200 a month more.
“I think it’s not right that people who have worked all their lives and some who have been on benefits all of their lives get more pension. We believe this is unfair.”
When it collects 10,000 signatures, the petition would be entitled to a written response from the UK Government.
Separately, over 13,225 individuals have signed an online petition also demanding that Basic State Pension payments rise to £221.20 each week even though the UK Government has already asserted that it has “no plans to provide all pensioners born before 6 April 1951 with the New State Pension”.
DWP Addresses State Pension Disparities
In a written answer to the petition established by Andrew Mills, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) stated it is “committed to a decent State Pension as the foundation of support for people in retirement” but that “it is not possible to make direct, like for like comparisons between State Pension amounts”.
The DWP response includes: “In 2023-24 we will spend over £151.1 billion on benefits for pensioners. This includes spending on the State Pension which is forecast to be £124.1 billion in 2023-24.
“As a result of the Government's Triple Lock policy, from April 2024, the full yearly amount of the basic State Pension will be worth over £3,700 more, in cash terms, than in 2010. That is around £990 more than if it had been uprated by prices, and around £1,000 more than if it had been uprated by earnings (since 2010). In 2021/22, there were 200 thousand fewer pensioners in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10.”
Concerning the proposal to match the Basic and New State Pensions directly, DWP declared: “It is not possible to make direct, like for like comparisons between State Pension amounts under the pre-2016 State pension system and the new State Pension. Comparing the headline full rates alone is misleading: this does not reflect the full position for people under each system.
“Although the systems are different, they both reflect the National Insurance contributions an individual has made over their lifetimes. It is not the case that everybody who receives the new State Pension will immediately receive the full rate of £221.20 per week. Nor is it the case that everyone in the pre-2016 system only receives the basic State Pension.”
The DWP also explained that under the pre-2016 State Pension system, people get different amounts depending on their National Insurance contributions.
DWP said: “In addition to the Basic State Pension, people could also have qualified for the additional State Pension for the years that they paid the full rate of National Insurance. This means that the State could pay them in excess of £200 a week on top of the Basic State Pension, which may result in a much higher State Pension amount than the New State Pension.”