The Government has hit back at an online petition which called for paying all pensioners £221 a week, stating the basic state pension and new state pension operate under different systems.
Currently those who reached retirement age before April 6, 2016 are eligible for the basic state pension, which is worth up to £169.50 each week, whereas those on the new state pension receive a weekly rate of £221.20.
Elaine Whatmough, the petition creator, said: “It is not right that pensioners who are on the new pension can get over £200 a month more.”
More than 12 million older people across the UK receive the state pension and the amount they receive depends on the number of qualifying National Insurance years they have made.
Britons need at least 10 are needed for any state pension payment and around 35 for the full new rate.
However, people who have been ‘contracted out’ may need more.
Those on the new state pension receive a weekly rate of £221.20
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The “Give all state pensioners the new state Pension” was created by Waspi woman Elaine due to the discrepancies within pay for pensioners.
She wrote: “I think it’s not right that people who have worked all their lives and some who have been on benefits all of their lives get more pension. We believe this is unfair.”
Whatmough is not the only person campaigning for an equalisation of pension rates. Andrew Mills has also launched an online petition called: “Provide all pensioners born before April 1951 with the new state pension”
Despite gaining over 10,000 signatures, the DWP has stated that this is not possible.
They said it is “committed to a decent state pension as the foundation of support for people in retirement” but that “it is not possible to make direct, like for like comparisons between state pension amounts”.
In 2023/24, the DWP spent more than £151.1billion on benefits for pensioners. This includes spending on the state pension which was forecasted to be £124.1billion in 2023-24.
The DWP said: “As a result of the Government’s triple lock policy, from April 2024, the full yearly amount of the basic state pension will be worth over £3,700 more, in cash terms, than in 2010.
“That is around £990 more than if it had been uprated by prices, and around £1,000 more than if it had been uprated by earnings (since 2010). In 2021/22, there were 200,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty after housing costs than in 2009/10.”
They explained that under the pre-2016 state pension system, people receive different amounts depending on the National Insurance contributions they made.
DWP continued: “In addition to the basic state pension, people could also have qualified for the additional state pension for the years that they paid the full rate of National Insurance.
“This means that the State could pay them in excess of £200 a week on top of the basic state pension, which may result in a much higher state pension amount than the new state pension.”
The DWP also said there are other reasons why it is not possible to make direct comparisons between the pre-2016 and new State pension systems.
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It said: “For example, people in the new system will, in general, have to wait longer for their state pension than those under the pre 2016 system.
“The state pension age has been 66 since 2020 and is rising to 67 by 2028.”
