A petition calling for the basic state pension to be increased to the new state pension amount is gaining ground.
The Parliamentary petition has had over 6,000 signatures with the campaign branding the current policy “unfair”, as the full basic state pension is £156.20 a week compared to the full new state pension of £203.85 a week.
The campaign states: “We would like the Government to provide all pensioners born before 6 April 1951 with the new state pension.
“The full new state pension is over £200 more a month than the full basic pension. We believe this is unfair, and unjustifiable.
You can read and sign the petition here. State pension payments are increasing 8.5 percent, with the full basic state pension going up from £156.20 a week to £169.50 a week.
The full new state pension will be going up from £203.85 a week to £221.20 a week.
A person typically needs 30 years of National Insurance contributions to get the full basic state pension and 35 years of contributions to get the full new state pension.
Another group of state pensioners calling for their payments to be increased are frozen state pensioners, who do not get the yearly uprating because of where they live.
You have to live in the UK or in certain countries with a social security agreement with the UK to get the increase each April.
A recent report by the International Consortium of British Pensioners (ICBP) said the current policy “requires review and replacement by a polcy that is consistent, logical and fair”.
The research also challenges DWP figures estimating that ending frozen pensions would cost £4.59billion over five years, arguing that this is based on the assumption all frozen pensioners would receive payments as if they had never been frozen.
Researchers said this is not how frozen pensions have historically been righted, and the cost would actually be just £307million over five years, or around £60million a year.
The report said: “The frozen pensions policy is a disincentive for pensioners to remain overseas and a barrier to pensioners wanting to join their families overseas.”
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