State pension to rise by 34p per day from April 2010
The basic state pension is to increase from April 2010 by 2.5%, which equates to a rise of £2.40 per week, or 34p per day.
For a single pensioner, the weekly pension will rise from £95.25 to £97.65, while a pensioner couple will see a rise to £156.16 from the current £152.30.
State and public sector pensions are both calculated with reference to September inflation numbers and the rise comes despite the Retail Prices Index (RPI) being negative last month.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed today that RPI in September was -1.4%.
Meanwhile some other state benefits are linked in a similar method to another measure of inflation (the Rossi index) which is the RPI excluding housing costs.
This is currently negative so housing benefit, council tax benefit, incapacity benefit, job seekers’ allowance (JSA) and income support will all remain at the same rate from next April.
Tom McPhail of Hargreaves Lansdown described the state pension rise as a “disappointment“ and said “for many people who find that their own personal rate of inflation is far higher than the national average – their income is simply not matching their escalating livings costs.”
Earlier this week the Pensions Advisory Service revealed that only a third of women currently receive the full state pension.
Many women miss out on a full state pension if they stop working or opt to work part-time to bring up their children.
As a result, they are missing out on National Insurance contributions due to leaving the workforce or working in low paid part-time jobs.
However, from 2010, the Government says new reforms will make pensions fairer and more generous for women.
Entitlement to the full state pension is based on the number of National Insurance contribution credits made by workers or those on certain state benefits. This is currently 44 years for men and 39 years for women.
However, men and women who reach state pension age on or after 6 April 2010 will only need 30 qualifying years to get a full state pension.
Comments (11)
Visited 56200 times, 2 so far today
Why ia a ‘Single’ pensioners State Pension so low?
Single people still have utility bills, houses to maintain, insurances & repairs to pay, only the food bill is slightly cheaper - non of these outgoings other than the cost of buying slightly less food are less expensive for a single person than a couple living in a similar property.
Yet the Government expects single pensioners to manage on far less money & have to make life threatening decisions such as whether to ‘Heat’ or ‘Eat’ when faced with the prospect of high energy bills after a particularly hard winter.
I have just received the details of my pension for next year. This averages out at only 1.17% because of the proportion of Basic State Pension (up 2.5%) and Additional State Pension, Graduated Retirement Benefit and Age Addition (all of 25p)these three portions having a 0% increase.
Not a very generous increase with the price of petrol, council tax, electricity & gas to name a few actual or projected increases known, which will be well above 1.17% average. This just shows how daft the present way of calculating inflation is formulated. Especially when one hears of the obscene
and totally unjustified bonuses reported to be being paid to some bankers.
It make you think that the “experts” have devised a system to pay out increases as little as possible without really thinking about the effect on some people.
One way to help solve the financial crisis and reduct the massive national debt would be to freeze all wages, salaries, pensions, bonuses and dividends etc but at the same time stop all increase to goods, services, charges and all other items of expenditure for individuals and organisations. This to go on for as long as it takes to solve the problem. If all were sharing the pain equally I am sure it would be accepted.
i have just received my new state pension forecast, and was expecting the rise of 2.5%. but no just 1.5%, alright not a vast difference, but once more we are mislead by the prime minister, i distinctly heard him say on tv 2.5%. or have the pension service made a mistake.
My husband has worked for 50 years and never claimed benefits. He retired last March with a total state pension of £200, which comprised of basic pension,graduated contributions and SERPS.As this is his only income,having not worked for a company with a pension scheme,it is scandalous that the increase is only on the basic pension. Will the private pensions of the public workforce be increased by only half the amount, or the millions of pounds paid out on benefits be treated the same as the pensioners. I think not. This government has no idea how these decisions affect the hard working people of this country. They made a similar error with abolishing the lower rate tax, but as it affected everyone, they changed there mind. Unfortunately, many pensioners do not understand the workings of the increase.
As a pensioner on the basic state pension I have little enough to live on, but my mother is in a care home and I have just received a notification of a £15 per week increase in her fees from April. As her pension increase is £2.40 I am now left to top up the difference of £12.60 per week from my basic state pension to cover this increase in her fees. I am now left to face the fact that no only can I not heat my home but I am now not able to eat either. How does the government expect us to manage on this?
What iv`e never been able to understand is that when you are 64years 364 days of age you must have a minimum wage of £230 approx to enable you to live,one day later when you are 65 years old £130 will do you just fine,where is the justification for those 2 amounts.by the first age normally your children have fled the nest,you have paid off your mortgage,so living expences bfore your 65th birthday and after your 65th birthday are the same,so why the variation in living costs??.someone please explain.
Like Mr C Williams I only have a State pension, mine comes in 6 parts. Having read that the 2010 increase would only apply to the Basic State Pension I did expect that this would include the Extra basic state pension - the part that I worked for an extra 5 years to earn so that I could afford to eat and pay my bills!!
the tax /benifit system of this country is a mess paying child benefit,fuel allowances,etc without means testing is throwing money away,no pensioners in this country should pay tax unless they receive at least the minimum wage as a pension,unused personal tax allowances should be transferable between married couples,the government needs to address pensioner poverty
I cannot understand why people retiring after 2010 with only 30 yrs N.I. payments should get a full pension when my wife why retired in 2008 and paid more than 30 yrs N.I. but not the full amount is only entitled to a 75% pension, shouldnt this be back dated to be fair
For those who defer taking the Sate Pension until after age 65 (and up to age 70) these is an addition to the BASIC STATE PENSION of 7.5% for each year deferred. This means that the Extra - Basic STATE PENSION for such peolp ought to have been subject to the 2.5% addition given to the BASIC STATE PENSION. Unless this is done, there will be an ongoing loss to such people in succeeding years. THIS MATTER MEANS THAT THE PENSIONS FOR SUCH PENSIONERS NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED IMMEDIATELY.
I have just had info about my new state pension increase of £9.6 per month .What I dont understand is how the tax man can take £6.2 from this leaving me with £3.4 how fair is that?.