Talk:State Pension (United Kingdom)

Get rid of these overly-long tables?

This page on UK State Pension has loads of useful information, but it is getting to be very hard to read. Why? Because of the inclusion of too many tables of numbers.

There is a long table under the Heading 'Background', which gives an Inflation Table 1980-2012. This shows a historical compilation of Pension Payments, and the effect of inflation on the value of those payments. Yes, someone has gone to a lot of trouble putting this together, but who cares? Surely this info could be referenced to an external site. Personally, I would just delete the whole of this table, as being of little interest to most readers who just want the facts about the current situation.

And there are three long tables under the heading 'State Pension Age'; these give the actual State Pension Age for men and women born from 1950-1953, 1953-1978, and some government proposals for people born between 1960-1969. Yes this is interesting stuff, and some people might need to know these details, but these tables take up too much space. Again, surely this info could be referenced to external sites, e.g. Calculating your State Pension age and Pensions Reform 2011. That way these three tables could be deleted, and interested readers could be directed to the source for the details of the various State Pension Ages.

I am inclined to delete all of the tables from this Wikipedia page, to make it more readable. But since this would be a major change, I am posting here first. What do others think? Boy.bowen (talk) 21:06, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

No one has commented in the 7-months since I posted the above suggestion (on 17 April 2012). I have therefore deleted those long tables. I think that the entry is now much more readable. Boy.bowen (talk) 21:31, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

State Pension vs. Pension Credit

Pension Credit is not a pension top-up. Pension Credit is not a pension top-up. Pension Credit is not a pension top-up!! I'm sorry, but it's true. Pension Credit was introduced in October 2003 to replace Income Support for the over-60s. It's income based (or 'means-tested', if you prefer) - because it's assessed according to income or capital. Not whether you've got any pension in payment. In fact, you can claim PC without being entitled to claim your SP. Yes, I realise it's a subtlety for a lot of people who may not be aware of the difference. But it needs to be spelt out.

Anyway, back to the matter in hand. Talking about 'means-testing' in this article/context is confusing. Why?? Well, you don't need to supply income details in order to claim or receive State Pension - on the contrary, you just fill the form in and send it back. And that's it. The fact that many people need to claim PC to top-up their incomes is a separate matter. But the ambiguity that it's part of the pension (that's withheld??) spreads confusion; the article isn't about self-help per se.

As does the idea that the flat-rate pension would be paid at 100% to everyone. That's not what's being proposed. Or that Occ Pens. would be taken into account. They aren't at the moment for State Pension, and wouldn't be under the new system - other than where the State Second Pension part was contracted out.

For these reasons I've cut some bits out of the article, to make it clearer. But I've left some of the means-testing section in, just so the subject isn't brushed out altogether. (86.146.107.160 (talk) 02:20, 15 April 2011 (UTC))

I'm confused by your statement since the DWP says "Pension Credit tops up weekly income to a guaranteed minimum level." A pension is typically defined as a continued payment to older people. I've now headed the section "top-up pension" which is obviously different to a "pension top-up". Is that ok for you? Chris55 (talk) 10:21, 25 April 2011 (UTC)

"Uprating" Issues?

I have a little bit of a problem with this article as it compares the Basic State Pension to the New State Pension. Whereas it seems more reasonable to me to directly compare the Old State Pension to the New State Pension. Where the Old State Pension consists of the Basic State Pension plus the Additional State Pension components. I understand there are separate articles relating to the Additional State Pension components and that it is complex - particularly in relation to the issue of Contracting Out and the uprating of these additional components, which are uprated by CPI rather than the Triple Lock. 31.125.76.2 (talk) 17:17, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

I have changed the heading (before reading your Talk comment!) from Basic State Pension to Old State Pension for just this sort of reason and hopefully clarified exactly what the quoted amount applies to. I have made no attempt to further explain the details of the Additional State Pension components. CatNip48 (talk) 23:55, 29 September 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 14 January 2016

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: moved to State Pension (United Kingdom). Malcolmxl5 (talk) 07:43, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

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State Pension → UK State Pension – The current name for this page 'State Pension' does not identify to which country's pension it refers. It should be named 'UK State Pension' to clearly identify that it only refers to the State Pension scheme in the UK. This page was previously named as 'UK State Pension', but an edit dated 05:11 17 December 2015 moved the page from 'UK State Pension' to the current name 'State Pension'. For clarity, that move should be reverted to the clearer 'UK State Pension'. Boy.bowen (talk) 04:05, 14 January 2016 (UTC)

• Strong rename WP:SYSTEMATICBIAS; this title clearly shows UK bias; most people live outside the UK and State Pensions exist in many places. "State Pension" should redirect to pension -- 70.51.44.60 (talk) 08:11, 15 January 2016 (UTC)

• Note that state pension (lowercase) already directs to pension. Also note that State Pension (United Kingdom) is more in line with Wikipedia naming policies if a disambiguator is warranted. —  AjaxSmack  00:21, 16 January 2016 (UTC)
• Support State Pension (United Kingdom) per AjaxSmack. The proposed title is unsatisfactory, as "UK" is not part of the name. Parenthetical disambiguation is much more suitable. RGloucester — ☎ 04:48, 19 January 2016 (UTC)
• Support move to State Pension (United Kingdom). -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:07, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.