Changes in the basic state pension coming in on April 6th will change the rules governing the number of years of National Insurance contributions a woman requires to claim the full basic state pension.
Today, a woman turning 60 who has not paid NI contributions for a full 39 years will not qualify for the full basic state pension of £95 per week, instead she will qualify for only three-quarters of the basic state pension, giving her around £75 per week.
From April 6th, paying NI contributions for just 30 years gives a woman an entitlement to the full basic state pension, which by then will be £97 per week.
This threshold means that a woman turning 60 this month will receive £10,400 less in her pension over the next ten years, compared to her friend who turns 60 after 6th April.
This difference is even starker if she lives to enjoy the full life expectancy for a woman today, which is 81 years old.
In that case she will have received over £20,000 less in basic state pension payments, when compared to her slightly younger friend.
Similar changes apply to men, but women are expected to be most affected as they are most likely to have taken time out during their careers, thus reducing their total number of qualifying years of NI contributions for the basic state pension.
This ‘cliff-edge’ situation that occurs on April 6th has been called a form of ‘pensions apartheid’ by campaigners, who maintain that the new arrangements should have been phased in.
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