A new online petition is calling on the UK Government to set a minimum level of weekly State Pension payments of £416.80 for every retiree, arguing that the current rates are “far too low”. It is also asking for the official age of retirement to be lowered from 66 back to 60 for both men and women.
The current State Pension payment rates are worth up to £185.15 for those on the New State Pension and up to £141.85 for people receiving the Basic State Pension. The contributory benefit is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and will increase in April by 10.1 per cent, under the Triple Lock rule, taking the New State Pension to £203.85 per week and the Basic to £156.20.
Petition creator, Michael Thompson, said that increasing the payment rate for everyone over 60 to £416 per week would result in an annual income of £21,673.60.
He said this new level of payment “should lift thousands out of poverty, give our elderly folk the power to survive and help grow the real economy, bottom up”.
The ‘Increase State pensions to £416.80 per week and lower retirement age to 60 for all’ petition has been posted on the petitions-parliament website and has already passed the 10,000 signature threshold which prompts an official response from the UK Government.
The petition states: “British State Pensions are far too low. The Government must increase the basic state pension to £21,673.60 a year (£416.80 pw) and extend this to everyone aged 60 or over. This should lift thousands out of poverty, give our elderly folk the power to survive and help grow the real economy, bottom up.
“£416.80 per week is the National Minimum Wage from April 2023.”
It continues: “A State Pension Age of 60 for all, reflects current trends in life expectancy which are downward and that health deteriorates long before people are able to claim State Pension currently.”
He suggests that this level of investment could be “easily paid for by using more of our GNP [Gross National Product], in-line with EU neighbours and halting tax avoidance.”
Mr Thompson previously posted a petition of a similar theme last September, which received more than 111,000 signatures and was debated by MPs in Parliament in December.
That petition also called on the UK Government to lower the State Pension age from 66 to 60, putting forward the same arguments for weekly increase to help older people out of poverty and give them more spending power.
Pensions Minister, Laura Trott listened to contributions from MPs including David Linden (SNP), Marsha De Cordova (Labour), Beth Winter (Labour) and Matt Rodda (Labour), before saying that the UK Government “disagrees with the petition’s proposed approach” and setting out the reasons why.
You can read the reasons and summary of the debate here.
You can view the full petition on the petitions-parliament website here.
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