A petition calling on the UK Government to set a minimum level for weekly State Pension payments of £416.80 for everyone over the age of 60 is due an official response.
Having now passed the 10,000 signature threshold which triggers an official response, the petition argues the new rates from April are "far too low". More than 22,800 people have already shown their support for the proposed changes.
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 Daily Record reports.
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The contributory benefit is administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and will increase in April by 10.1%, 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 received 17,332 signatures of support (at time of writing). At 10,000 signatures the UK Government is obliged to respond.
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.
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