Millions facing a shock over their state pension
MILLIONS of people who think they will receive their state pension when they turn 65 are in for a big shock.
Former pensions minister Ros Altmann said the Government is failing to warn people that the state pension age for men and women will start rising soon to 66.
She said: “A lot of people in their early 60s assume that when they reach 65 they can have their state pension. They are going to have a shock.”
By 2020 people will have to wait until their 66th birthday to receive their state pension, which Baroness Altmann said forms the “bedrock” of many people’s retirement planning.
The Government will start phasing in the changes before then, meaning that some people turning 65 in late 2018 and 2019 will have to wait a few months before they can get the allowance.
Baroness Altmann, who left the Government in July, said “out-of-touch” officials are “running out of time” to help people plan properly.
The Department for Work and Pensions has already come under heavy criticism for failing to publicise changes in 2010 that lifted the state pension age for women above 60. Baroness Altmann said: “A lot of women found they suddenly didn’t have anything to live on. It’s shocking really that the Government doesn’t seem to have learnt enough from the problems seen in the past.
‘The DWP should have learnt that failure to inform people properly has caused tremendous stress and hardship known. The Government does owe it to people to make it clear when the state pension age is changing.”
Three-quarters of a million people reach state retirement age every year and many may need to work an extra year, draw on their savings or seek other support to tide them over to 66.
Currently the pension is £155.65 a week for workers who have made the full 35 years of national insurance contributions.
Baroness Altmann called on the Government to run national campaigns in newspapers, TV and radio about the changes rather than relying on letters or online statements.
They should also stop “wasting money promoting other changes like the new amount that the pension is worth and the chance people now have to top it up”.
A DWP spokesman said: “State pension age rises are extensively promoted across broadcast, print and online media and have been extensively debated in Parliament.”
To check when you can claim the state pension, visit gov.uk/statepension-age