State Pension - EXACT qualifying date?

[Silvabod]

If born on 1st Jan 2000, one will be 65 on 31st Dec 2065 (and the "birthday" is actually the anniversary of birth on 1st Dec 2066, when one wilol be 65 years and 1 day old.

Same principle for any other birth date.

THIS QUESTION has financial relevance to 1 in 7 people.

The Government in its infinate wisdom has decreed that State Pensions will be paid from the week in which you attain the age of 65, the week beginning on a Monday.

My "birthday" is today (12th June) but I actually became 65 years old yesterday (Monday). The Pensions website includes a calculator which states that I am 65 years 0 days old on 12th June (incorrect) and my pension is paid from NEXT week - I lose a weeks pension (as does everyone else unfortuate enough to have a birthday falling on a Tuesday).

Can get no sense out of Govt Pensions helpline ("it's the way it's always been done" response).

Does anyone know the EXACT wording of the law pertaining to State Pension due date? If it's "anniversary, I'll go quietly, if it's "attain the age of 65" then this is relevant to many many people!

[kempie]

Your reasoning is faulty - you attain each yearly increase in age on the day of the anniversary of your birth i.e. the starting day of each year of your life.

Your 1st birthday marks the start of the 2nd year of your life much as your actual birth day marks the start of the 1st year of your life.

[Silvabod]

I believe my "faulty" logic is supported by inheritance case law - (a minor reaches majority on the day BEFORE their birthday anniversary), which is why I seek specific info regarding the exact wording of the relevant Pensions act.

A non-personal example. If under a 12 month warranty and purchased 1st Jan, the warranty expires 31st Dec, not 1st Jan. It's a convention, not a fact, that for personal ages, a different interpretation is made.

[dzug]

I'm afraid you are on a loser - though may well be correct in your principle.

The Social Security Act 1992 says :

44.�(1) A person shall be entitled to a Category A retirement pension if�
(a) he is over pensionable age; and
(b) he satisfies the contribution conditions for a Category A retirement pension specified in Schedule 3, Part I, paragraph 5;
and, subject to the provisions of this Act, he shall become so entitled on the day on which he attains pensionable age and his entitlement shall continue throughout his life.

(2) A Category A retirement pension shall not be payable in respect of any period falling before the day on which the pensioner's entitlement is to be regarded as commencing for that purpose by virtue of section 5(1)(k) of the Administration Act.

That 5(1)(k) allows regulations to specify a different date for commencement of payment - so it doesn't really matter when your birthday is. Payment starts when the regulations say it starts.

[kempie]

Not convention - statute.

The Family Law Reform Act 1969

9. � (1) The time at which a person attains a particular age expressed in years shall be the commencement of the relevant anniversary of the date of his birth.

[Silvabod]

Thank you, dzug and kempie - you have given the specific answers in law that I sought.

Interesting that for inanimate objects (purchases), a (warranty) year is a year, whereas for people, a year is a year and a day.

Who was it said, "the law is an ass" ? - how true. Rhetorical question - subject satisfactoriloy closed, with thanks.