DWP rejects calls for £221 weekly pension for all pensioners

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The DWP has hit back at an online petition, after it was backed by thousands, which called for paying all pensioners £221 a week

The Department for Work and Pensions has rejected calls to make state pension over £200 a week for all pensioners. The DWP has hit back at an online petition, after it was backed by thousands, which called for paying all pensioners £221 a week.

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. The “Give all state pensioners the new state Pension” was created by Waspi woman Elaine because of the discrepancies within pay for pensioners.

She wrote: I think it is 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. Andrew Mills has also launched an online petition called: “Provide all pensioners born before April 1951 with the new state pension”

In reply, the Department for Work and Pensions 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, it said.

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”.

The DWP added: 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, it said.

The DWP added: For instance, people in the new system will, in general, have to wait longer for their state pension than those under the pre 2016 system.

It added: The state pension age has been 66 since 2020 and is rising to 67 by 2028.

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