Torsten Bell, the DWP minister, spoke to the Work and Pensions Committee about changes that will be made to the eligibility requirements for the DWP benefit.
He was asked about a number of things, including how people can plan for retirement financially and how the state pension fits into their plans for their later years. One thing that came up was the upcoming increase in the age at which people can get their state pension. You can now get your state pension when you turn 66. However, the age at which you can qualify is going up. It will keep going up until it reaches 67 in April 2028. People asked Mr. Bell how raising the age of eligibility might affect health and frailty.
The committee also wanted to know what advice the Government had gotten from senior medical experts on this issue. Mr. Bell said that health issues “will absolutely be part of how we act” when it comes to decisions about pensions.
He said, “The last Government made the decision to raise the state pension age, and they also sped it up. You will have to ask them who they spoke to at the time.” Along with the 2014 Act, they did put out an impact assessment, but I can’t talk about it. There are other people in the room who were involved in that and are representing parties. You could ask them who they talked to.
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The rise from 66 to 67 was supposed to happen by 2036, but the 2014 Act sped up this timeline by eight years to reflect the fact that people are living longer. There is also a law that says the state pension age will rise again, from 67 to 68, between 2044 and 2046.
Getting the state pension early
People also asked Mr. Bell what he thought about letting people get the state pension early. He said, “That’s a very good question, and I think we should give it some thought.” The minister said that there are some inequality challenges to think about when looking at early access for certain groups.
He told the MPs, “You want the government to help people who are too sick to work, no matter how old they are, whether they are 25, 45, or 66. You should keep that in mind. “You want a system that helps people.” We chose to give people over the state pension age and under it a lot of different levels of income support for good reasons. This is because the issues with work incentives are different and so on.
Mr. Bell also had something to say about the idea of letting people with a terminal diagnosis get help early. He said, “It’s right that people question how any of us would handle the problems of terminal illness, whether it’s for ourselves or for our family.” You may have heard different versions of that. “Some people respond by allowing early access to the state pension at certain ages—65 or 66—but there are 45-year-olds with terminal illnesses.” The minister also said that when thinking about early access to the benefit, it is important to look at the “characteristics” of different people.
The triple lock system will raise state pension payments by 4.8% this April
This policy makes sure that payment rates go up every April by 2.5 percent, the rate of growth in average earnings, or inflation, whichever is higher.
