State pension shambles: YOUR stories

HUNDREDS of Money Mail readers have described their sense of bitter betrayal after discovering that they will receive only a fraction of the new state pension that they were promised.

Letters and emails have poured in following our investigations into how the weekly payout would be calculated. Millions will be unable to claim the full amount of £151.25 a week when the new pension is introduced in April next year.

Instead, workers who contracted out of the state second pension will get money deducted. In some cases all they’ll receive is what they would have been entitled to under the old state pension.

This week the Department for Work and Pensions launched a major advertising campaign to explain how the reforms work.

Pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann said: ‘Huge efforts have been put into reforming the mindblowingly complicated state pension system that exists today into something that, over time, will be clearer and fairer for everybody.

‘But the job of explaining to people how the reforms will affect them hasn’t been done well enough.

‘People need to understand, so they can make the right decisions about saving and preparing for later life.’

Below, Money Mail reveals some of the tales from readers. I REACH state pension age on July 7 next year and have been informed that although I have 42 qualifying years, I will be granted the £117.58 I would have got under the old rules.

I was in full-time employment from 1967 to 2006. In 2006, I was told by the DWP that no further contributions were needed to get a full state pension. Surely in any other situation we would be taking legal action?

Mr B. G, by email. I WAS happy when the Government announced the new flat-rate pension of £151.25 a week as I will reach 65 in March, 2017.

I started work at 16 and since 17 worked in the IT industry. At 50, I was made redundant. IT is a young person’s industry, and I eventually took another job on a much reduced salary. At 58, I had to finish work altogether. Since 2010, I have been living on my savings. When I got my forecast, it showed I had 44 qualifying years and an estimated pension of £118.13.

I turned over the statement and found under the new system I’d have got just £20.77 a week!

I couldn’t understand any of the explanations the DWP gave me.

Mr J. M., Ickenham, Middlesex. I AM 58 and have paid National Insurance (NI) for 40 years. My forecast says I will get a new state pension of £129 a week. It came with no explanation.

Apparently, I was contracted out in a private pension for 30 years but I was oblivious to this. Here’s the rub though — my wife paid NI for ten years and has 30 years of contributions made up of childcare credits — and her pension forecast is also £129 a week.

Is this fairness?

Mr S. M., by email. I WILL not get my state pension until March 2018, when I’m 64 — that’s four-and-a-half years later than I was expecting.

I had to give up work in 2006 to care for my husband and had worked out my pension should cover us from age 60.

I asked for a forecast in September but could not make head nor tail of it. The Pensions Service could not explain anything.

Mrs S. B., by email. I HAVE 40 qualifying years and understood I would get the new flat rate. But I will get the amount I qualify for under the old state pension, that’s £135.48 a week.

This is because under the new state pension calculations I lose about £ 16 a week as I was in a company pension scheme from 1996 to 2011, when I retired to look after a disabled grandson.

I, and many others I know, feel hard done by as we seem to be penalised for trying to save for our retirement. No one told us at the time that joining the company scheme would affect our state pension.

Mrs S. J., by email. I AM not due to retire for five years, but, as I want to plan for my retirement, I asked for a state pension forecast. I got sent two figures — £108.57 and £145.37.

It’s a big difference when you’re trying to budget.

I showed my financial adviser and he was equally baffled.

I have been in permanent employment since I was 18 and I feel I have been penalised for being in a private pension.

The Government should keep its original promise of a flat rate for all.

Mrs E. B. Grimsby. I WILL have 40 years of NI contributions by the time I retire in June 2018. Under the new pension, I get £105.80. Under the old rules, £132.69 — so I will get that amount, but it’s still £18.56 less than the full £151.25.

Mr P. B., by email. I HAVE been out of work since May 2012, but I am due to reach state pension age next June.

I have a forecast which says that I have 48 qualifying years but my pension will be £ 141.75 a week — about £10 less than I was expecting.

When I phoned the Pensions Service I found out that apparently I had been opted out of the state second pension by being in a company scheme. I never even knew.

Mr T. N., Nottingham. I WILL be 65 in October next year and have received a pension forecast. Up to the end of the last tax year, I had 47 qualifying NI years but my estimated pension will only be £130.05 per week.

I left employment in 1978 to work elsewhere, and was ‘contracted out’. Six years later I became selfemployed and so didn’t qualify for the state second pension.

I was ignorant of the future problems this might cause.

M. D., via email.