Since the 1995 Pensions Act, successive Governments have gone to significant lengths to communicate State Pension age changes, including campaigns and writing directly to those affected. This also included issuing around 16 million automatic pension forecasts between 2003-2006, accompanied by a leaflet on State Pension age, which included information on how it was increasing for women;<\/p>
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We wrote to those people affected by State Pension age equalisation and the increase in State Pension age from 65 to 66 as follows:<\/p>
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- Between April 2009 and March 2011 we sent letters to 1.2 million women affected by the changes introduced in the Pensions Act 1995, (those born between 6 April 1950 and 5 April 1953) informing them of the change to their State Pension age.<\/p>
- We wrote to those men and women affected by the Pensions Act 2011 (those born between 6 April 1953 and 5 April 1960) informing them of the change to their State Pension age between January 2012 and November 2013. This involved mailing more than 5 million letters with accompanying leaflet to those affected.<\/p>
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In addition, we have just completed writing to people who are affected by the rise in State Pension age from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028. This involved sending letters to around 1 million people between December 2016 and May 2018.<\/p>
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We will continue to build on our communication strategies, making the most of digital technologies, to ensure we have a clear plan for communicating future changes to State Pension age and to assist with wider financial and later life employment planning.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4142", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Guy Opperman"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Hexham"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Guy Opperman"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2018-05-22", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2018-05-22T14:17:28.717Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2018-05-15", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "State Retirement Pensions: Females"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will write to women affected by changes to the state pension age to alert them to the effects of those changes.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/253", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Laurence Robertson"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Tewkesbury"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Laurence Robertson"} ], "uin" : "144153"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/170795", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Department for Work and Pensions"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/170795/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
We have put transitional arrangements in place for those women whose ability to build their own State Pension could have been affected because they opted to pay the \u201cmarried woman\u2019s stamp\u201d on the understanding that they would be able to claim on their husband\u2019s contributions. They will be able to get a pension of about the same as the basic pension they could have got in the current scheme plus any additional State Pension they built up themselves by April 2016, if that is more than they would get under the new rules on their own contributions.<\/p>
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We have acted on concerns raised about the potential impact of these changes on the spouses and civil partners of military personnel and accordingly will provide new credits to cover periods of accompanied service abroad prior to April 2010.<\/p>
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We are also seeking to support those reaching State Pension age after the reforms are introduced to understand how they will be affected, as well as actions people may be able to take to increase their State Pension, through a multi-channel communications campaign.<\/p>
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We estimate that only around 2% of individuals reaching State Pension age in Great Britain between 2016 and 2030 will be adversely affected at some point in their retirement by the removal of derived entitlement to the basic State Pension, of whom around three-quarters (130,000) are women. This estimate does not take account of those who may gain additional qualifying years by making voluntary National Insurance contributions under the easements to the rules we have introduced for people reaching State Pension age from April 2016.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/220", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Steve Webb"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Thornbury and Yate"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Steve Webb"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2015-01-05", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2015-01-05T10:24:26.017Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "29"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Work and Pensions"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2014-12-16", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "State Retirement Pensions: Females"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what help he plans to provide to women who will be adversely effected by the ending of access to derived basic state pensions; and if he will make a statement.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/253", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mr Laurence Robertson"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Tewkesbury"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Mr Laurence Robertson"} ], "uin" : "218911"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 2, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }