Are new state pension rules fair or a fiasco?

I CAN’T understand the fuss about the new state pension. Those already retired, most with 44 years’ National Insurance contributions, won’t get the enhanced pension. I get about that amount, but only because I have some SERPS and didn’t claim my pension for 15 months. When I complained to my MP, she told me that as I receive a final-salary pension and was contracted out, I wouldn’t have got it anyway. So the information was available: people only have to ask. Many people don’t plan ahead, then either realise their savings won’t pay as much as they thought or they’re entitled to pension credit. We are the losers: we have the extra income but I have to pay my mortgage with no help, and I don’t get free dental treatment, free council tax and the rest. I’ve always known what my pension would be, but I didn’t realise how much income tax I’d pay. That the over-65s tax allowance has been frozen for years doesn’t help. Single folk with small company pensions will always lose out. Many on pension credit are better off than me.

JUNE MUSKETT, Norwich. PENSIONS minister Baroness Altmann says the Government has failed to inform those within ten years of retirement how they will be affected by pensions reforms. How true. We were all told we would get the full flat rate if we had a minimum 35 years of contributions. I have 44 years’ qualifying contributions, but as I reach 60 in December, my retirement age will go up to 66. If I retire then, I’ll have 50 years of qualifying contributions. so will I get the full rate? Far from it. My forecast says I’ll get £116.85 a week as I’ve been contracted out — a reduction of £34.66 a week. so I’ve lost not only six years’ pension because the pension age has risen, but I also won’t get the full flat rate pension promised to all. Fair? Hardly.

HELEN SHENNAN, Hoylake, Wirral. THE way various governments have treated pension provision and savings, with misguided decisionmaking is a catastrophe. Some years ago, I was told my additional SERPS contributions would give me an enhanced £157 weekly pension at 65. This valued my SERPS contributions at £52 a week — but it tops up my other pensions nicely. I’ve now been told that I must work to 66 and will still get £157 a week, safeguarding my SERPS payment. But in the meantime the pension is to be raised to £151 a week which means my SERPS contributions are now valued only at £5.75. This means the loss of a year’s pension at £8,164 and an annual loss of £2,405 thereafter. To put this in perspective, in Greece and many other parts of Europe, most people retire at 50 to 51 on full pay as their pension. I think I’ll drawdown my pension pot, buy a boat and clear off.

DAVID BROWN, Woodstock, Oxon.