Why is the state pension so complicated?

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2021

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than 200 pensioners responded to a request to tell us how much their state pension was. They were nearly all different amounts. Next week the basic pension is rising to £137.60 a week and the new state pension paid to younger pensioners to £179.60. But those are amounts that hardly anyone actually gets. So why are pensions - the old and the new - so complicated?

Who better to answer that than two former pensions ministers. Sir Steve Webb had that job throughout the years of the coalition government and Baroness Ros Altmann for just over a year under David Cameron.

Pockit is not a bank. But it does offer what it calls a current account. In fact that is a pre-paid card which customers load money onto and then can spend it almost as if it was a bank account. But some users have told Moneybox that their accounts have been locked and they they have struggled to get through to Pockit to find out what's going on. Paul talks to Martyn James, consumer rights expert at Resolver.

It is now more than 90 days since the UK left the ambit of the EU at the end of the transition period. And more than one million UK people living in EU countries must adapt to the laws that apply to foreign residents. And if you have thought that maybe one day you would like to go to work or retire to an EU country what are the rules you will now have to follow? This week we look at Spain which is home to more people from the UK than any other EU country. Barry Davys is a partner in Spectrum International Financial Adviser group based in Catalunya.

Researcher: Sowda Ali Producer: Ben Carter Editor: Richard Vadon

Transcript

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0:00.0	In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers.
0:08.0	But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA
0:12.0	was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife.
0:18.0	Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day,
0:24.0	who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA.
0:28.5	Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:33.5	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:37.8	Hello, in this Moneybox podcast, customers with a pocket account tell us it's a nightmare contacting the firm to resolve their problems because it has no phone lines.
0:48.6	And if you're British and live in Spain, have a holiday home there or plan to retire there. You should now expect the Spanish
0:54.9	Inquisition. And we look at a safe way to pay for goods online if you don't pay by card or
1:00.1	PayPal and we ask how practical is it. But first, the state pension. We're looking at it this
1:05.7	week because it rises from Monday by three or four pounds a week. That'll be added to the current
1:10.5	basic state pension, currently £134 four pounds a week. That'll be added to the current basic state pension,
1:12.1	currently £134.25 a week, or the new state pension paid to younger pensioners, which is currently
1:18.2	£175.20. But those headline amounts bear no resemblance to what people actually get.
1:25.8	I'm David. I'm 82, and I receive 90 pounds a week. Hello, I'm Lynne. I'm 66 and I receive
1:34.7	157 pounds and four pence a week. Hi, I'm John, I'm 69 and I receive 168 pounds a week. Hello, I'm Jen. I'm 69 and I receive 168 pounds a week.
1:51.1	Hello, I'm Jen. I'm 78 and I receive 57 pounds 50 a week.
1:58.8	Hello, I'm William. I'm 75 years old and I receive 171 pounds 24p per week.
2:02.2	Well, the words of just sum of more than 200 pensioners who told us how much their state pension actually was.
2:05.8	Almost all of them, 186, got different amounts,
2:10.4	ranging from £29 a week, which is almost certainly less than it should be,
	...

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