USDAW 11th National Pensions conference - Part 1

I applied to attend the National pensions Conference and was offered a place..
I drove up on Wednesdsay 7th October and due to the distance USDAW booked me into a hotel.
I met up with a few others from the Midlands Division and we had a good catch up that evening over a meal at the EFFS Braserie ( greek and indian food ) in Warrington.

On Thursday 8th October I arrived at 9.30am to register for the conference.

Upon arrival I was given my credentials and a welcome pack.

The welcome pack contained the agenda for the day and a list of which groups delegates would be in along with several useful leaflets and posters.

Morning session

  

The conference started with a welcome from Jeff Broome and Debra Blow USDAW Pensions officer.

We then herd from our first guest speaker of the day Sheena Taylor – DWP who spoke about the changes being made to the state pension.

Guest speaker Sheena Taylor DWP – State Pension.

Sheena spoke about the changes being made to the state pension.

Sheena explained that the government is currently looking at the state pension to make it fair and sustainable.

The current state pension contains several criteria that can allow an increase in a persons state pension.

The new state pension will still have disability benefits and means tested housing benefit and council tax.

The new full state pension will be at least £151.25 this figure will be set in the autumn statement.

The new state pension will start from 6^th April 2016 and will affect anyone who will reach state pension age from that date. Men – 6^th April 1961 Women – 6^th April 1964.

You need at least 10 qualifying years of paying national insurance to qualify for the state pension but to get the new full state pension you need 35 qualifying years of paid national insurance.

There will be a transitional period that will likely be several decades due to the number of years people are required to pay national insurance. This will cover workers who are working now and wont qualify for the new state pension until after 6^th April 2016.

The transitional period will do calculations using the old and new state pension systems.

You would then receive the higher of the two calculations.

Sheena also explained that it is worth keeping all of your p60’s so that when you do come to retire from work and go to claim the state pension these will help to prove the national insurance you have paid, as there can be gaps in records if you have moved jobs and moved house during your working life.

There is a state pension toolkit that can be found on gov.uk that will be useful to members.

As the full state pension figure is still not known the documents will only be for the current state pension figure.