Guaranteed Minimum Pensions holders set to lose thousands due to DWP disdain
The Tory government has shafted pensioners – again.
Around 11 million people were contracted out of the State Earnings-Related Pensions Scheme by their employer, on condition that they would receive an index-linked guaranteed minimum pension.
This arrangement, for anyone in the private sector, was scrapped when the new state pension was introduced in 2016 – but remains in place for public sector workers.
The decision to scrap it was never mentioned in Parliament or in any Pensions legislation.
Women are the most seriously affected. Everybody involved is losing cash ranging from a few pounds a week to tens of thousands over the lifetime of their pension.
That’s the historical situation.
Now, after two people won £1,250 each in compensation after complaining to the Ombudsman, the government has decided not to ensure that everybody affected – who might also deserve payment – is told.
The Ombudsman recommended action “to ensure that affected individuals receive appropriate communication from the DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] about their state pensions”.
But in response, all the DWP has done is publish a factsheet on the GOV.UK website. It has not informed anybody who is affected by the changes that the factsheet exists, or even put out a press release.
You can read the factsheet here – and by publishing the link, This Site has done more to inform those affected than the UK government.
Taking this into account, it should be no surprise that only 6,922 people have read the factsheet and only four people (according to DWP Permanent Secretary Peter Schofield) have made inquiries about it.
None received any compensation because Schofield said they were not eligible.
So, of a possible 11 million people affected by the GMP change, the DWP’s tailor-made strategy (in response to an Ombudsman’s recommendation, remember) has reached nobody.
As intended?
Read a deeper analysis of the implications here: Rip off: DWP to take no further action to compensate millions who lost thousands of pounds of extra pensions | Westminster Confidential
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Long ago the finance pages of major newspapers said that the SERPs opt out of ALL public sector staff (not needing our consent so we were never informed about the loss of the state second pension) would not be matched by works pensions for us working class basic waged.
This came to pass with the small print of the new flat rate state pension from 2016 (from 2014 pension act), which has lost hundreds if not thousands a year for life in reduced state pension, mostly to women, contracted out of SERPs, even if you had the raised requirement of 35 years National Insurance record, or even the maximum of 50 years NI history.
So the article is wrong, as most public sector staff were and remain low waged women, so had small works pension anyway, most likely around £4000 a year or less.
Labour’s Callaghan did this to us, by contracting out the 80 per cent of us, working class by money in life, since 1978.
Majority of people opted out of SERPs would have been women working in the public sector.
over50sparty org uk