State pension proposal for £580 a week payments | Personal Finance | Finance
Campaigners are calling for the state pension to increase to over £30,000 a year, and for the age at which people begin to receive it to be lowered to 60. A petition to Parliament is demanding the state pension increase to the equivalent of 48 hours a week at the National Living Wage, which currently pays £12.21 an hour for workers aged over 21.
The campaign also wants the retirement age to be significantly lowered down to 60 – the state pension age is currently 66 for both men and women, and is set to move up to 67 between 2026 and 2028. The petition urges: “We want the Government to make the state pension available from the age of 60 & increase this to equal 48hrs a week at the National Living Wage.
“Hence from April 2025 a universal state pension should be £586.08 per week or about £30,476.16 per year as a right to all including expatriates, age 60 and above.”
Such an increase would more than double the full new state pension rate, which currently pays £230.25 a week, or £11,973 a year. The campaign also expressed concerns that the government wants to make the state pension system less generous.
The petition reads: “We think that government policy seems intent on the state pension being a benefit not paid to all, while ever increasing the age of entitlement. “We want reforms to the state pension, so that it is available to all including expatriates, from age 60, and linked to the National Living Wage, for security.”
If the petition reaches 10,000 signatures, the government will have to provide a response. If 100,000 people pledge their support, the matter will be considered for debate in Parliament.
To get the full new state pension, you typically need 35 years of National Insurance contributions. The full basic state pension is currently £176.45 a week, and you usually need 30 years of contributions to get this.
A person can check how much state pension they are on track to get when they claim using the state pension forecast tool on the government website. State pension payments increase each April in line with the triple lock policy, which decides the percentage increase for payment rates.
The triple lock guarantees a pay increase in line with the highest out of inflation, the rise in average earnings, or 2.5 per cent. Looking at the latest figures, the earnings metric is on track to be the key factor for next April’s increase, with the figure at 5.3 per cent in the latest numbers.
Inflation was at 3.4 per cent for the year to May, down from 3.5 per cent for the year to April.
