Pensions.

[zabado]

How much is the basic monthly pension in Britain after being in full time employment for 40 years, and how is it calculated ?.

[Togo]

Still as long as the politicians are well cared for..... ohh and council "staff", and Junkers mob of course then we are all saved.

[EDDIE51]

If you are pension age and only getting the basic pension or just over it then apply for Pension Credit . It tops up your pension to a better rate. Anyone male or female is entitled to it once they reach the age that a female born on the same day would qualify for state pension.
It's worth asking as the worst that can happen is they say no.
They do not tell you that you can get it you have to apply. I have talked to 5 retired people that I used to work with, non of them had heard of it, they all applied and they all got it!
I and my wife get an extra £85 a week pension credit. It is the most under-claimed benefit with 1 in 3 who are due it not claiming.
If you get even £1 a week pension credit you also automatically get full council tax and housing benefit as well as hospital travel costs paid and free NHS dental treatment.
I am in the process of getting partial dentures, all free as I get pension credit, they would cost £440 on the standard NHS dental service or £1700 private.

[fiction-factory]

It's always worth checking, i agree eddie. But does the pension credit still apply under the new state pension scheme? I understand that at some point the new scheme would mean that pension credit wouldn't be needed for new claimants?

[New Judge]

The farce is that if your State Pension is, say £100 per week (reduced because of lack of NI contributions) even under the new "flat rate" State Pension scheme you are guaranteed £159.35 per week and the difference is provided as Pension Credit. The idea of simplifying the State Pension scheme has immediately been lost because there is a separate and parallel system of Pension Credits ensuring that everybody is guaranteed the minimum sum. Even those with no NI contributions whatsoever have their income made up in "retirement". As well as this, as soon as you receive one penny in Pension Credit the world of "free" goodies (such as dental treatment and Council Tax) opens up to you. So, somebody eligible for the full State Pension (because he has made the required NI contributions) gets the new flat rate and he pays for all his goodies. A person who falls £5 short of the minimum sum (or indeed gets no State pension at all) gets the £5 in Pension Credit and pays for next to nothing. Very fair, don’t you think?

[Islay]

About as fair as the council house system NJ!

[fiction-factory]

I think pensions credit also opens up some doors for Warm Home Discount Scheme of £140 and things like free replacement boilers. It's a shame that pension credits can't be phased out and the new pension be improved even more (and linked benefits such as winter fuel allowance being scrapped or consolidated and made taxable). I don't think any governemnt has the heart/nerve thought to take away benefits- once theya re given they become an entitlement and are almost impossible to remove without storms of protest

[New Judge]

“It's a shame that pension credits can't be phased out and the new pension be improved…”

The problem is, f-f, that the State Pension Scheme is inextricably linked with retirement age benefits. All people of pensionable age are guaranteed a minimum income regardless of their contributions to the pot. This leads to such situations as I described above. If the State wants to provide people with a minimum income (whether in “retirement” or whilst of working age) that is one question. The muddle with the State Pension is that the payments made to those who have made the required contributions are conflated with those made to people who have not. Thus the State Pension scheme (which includes both types of recipients) is seen as unsustainable. In fact the State Pension scheme, when the beneficiaries are considered to be solely those who have made the required contributions (or who receive reduced payments because they have not) and whose pensions are calculated on that basis is entirely sustainable. It is only when the payments which do not relate to contributions – including Pension Credits – are included that the scheme becomes burdensome.

In addition to that the new (so-called) flat-rate pension is extremely unfair on those who were already in receipt of their pension when it was introduced. You can see that the difference in the rates amounts to around £2,000 a year. This means that over an average pension period of around 20 years an older recipient (perhaps older by just one day and who may have made up to 40 years of NI contributions) is around £40k worse off than the younger (who needs to have made only 35 years contributions). The system, despite its simplification, is grossly unfair towards those who have contributed the most. But that's the way things are in many respects in the UK.