The Department for Work and Pensions could roll out a big state pension update for both Basic and Full state pensioners. The DWP has been urged to make a massive pension change by boosting payments to nearly £30,000.
Michael Thompson has started the online petition calling for the change, titled ‘Abolish the basic State Pension, increase the new State Pension and pay to all’. In it, Mr Thompson said: “We believe those on the basic Pension should be paid the difference accrued between the Basic and New State Pension since the new State Pension’s introduction.”
Earlier in the week, Labour Party MP Jessica Toale asked Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds if assessing the merits of making the Basic and New State Pension equal had been considered by the DWP. In a written statement on Wednesday, the minister responded: “We are absolutely committed to supporting pensioners and giving them the dignity and security they deserve in retirement.”
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Ms Reynolds said: “We are absolutely committed to supporting pensioners and giving them the dignity and security they deserve in retirement. We have made no such assessment. It is not possible to make direct, like for like comparisons between State Pension amounts received under the pre 2016 State Pension system and the new State Pension.
“Under both systems, the amount people are entitled to varies according to their National Insurance record. It is not the case that everyone in the new system receives more than everyone in the pre 2016 system.”
Jessica Toale, Labour for Bournemouth West, reached out in the Commons to seek a response from Ms Reynolds and asked the MP and minister “to ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of equalising the (a) basic and (b) new State Pension.”