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- New pension was unveiled as a way of ending unfairness and complexity
- But figures imply 100,000 fewer people than expected will get the maximum
- 30,000 who it was thought would qualify in the first year will get far less
Just one in three workers will receive the full £148 flat-rate state pension next year — far fewer than first estimated, Money Mail can reveal. Government figures imply 100,000 fewer than expected will get the maximum in the first ten years of the new deal. This includes an estimated 30,000 people who it was thought would qualify in the first year but will now get far less. In total, just 222,000 of the roughly 600,000 people who will hit state pension age in the 12 months from April 2016 can claim the full amount. It is a new blow to a generation of savers who were told everyone would get the flat-rate pension if they had paid their National Insurance contributions.
Malcolm McLean, senior consultant at actuarial firm Barnett Waddingham, says: ‘Some politicians, who should have known better, said we would have a more generous and simpler flat-rate pension scheme, ‘Clearly, the new deal is neither of those things, at least not in the early years. It is unfortunate this has not been properly explained and expectations have been raised that can’t be fulfilled.....Read more here