Latest news with #Shirley-AnneSomerville
Daily Record
22-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
UK state pension age review needed to ensure system is 'sustainable and affordable'
Rachel Reeves said it was "right" to look at the age at which people can receive the state pension as life expectancy increases Rachel Reeves has insisted a review into raising the state pension age is needed to ensure the system is "sustainable and affordable". The UK Government review is due to report in March 2029 and the Chancellor said it was "right" to look at the age at which people can receive the state pension as life expectancy increases. The state pension age is currently 66, rising to 67 by 2028 and the Government is legally required to periodically review the age. The Chancellor said today: We have just commissioned a review of pensions adequacy, so whether people are saving enough for retirement, and also the state pension age. 'As life expectancy increases it is right to look at the state pension age to ensure that the state pension is sustainable and affordable for generations to come. That's why we have asked a very experienced set of experts to look at all the evidence." Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Scottish Government Social Justice Secretary, said Holyrood ministers had consistently warned the UK Government against raising the State Pension age more quickly than is needed. The SNP MSP added: "I welcome the fact the UK Government has committed to gathering more evidence before making any final decisions on a timeline. "We look forward to the UK Government sharing their proposals with us and we will respond in due course. I am particularly keen to see that the difference in average life expectancies found across regions in the UK is fully considered. Otherwise, generations may be left behind, just as they have been before. "While state pension policy is reserved to the UK Government, we are committed to enabling older people to have a dignified retirement. The review was announced by the Department for Work and Pensions on Monday and will involve an independent report, led by Dr Suzy Morrissey, on specified factors relevant to the Review of State Pension Age along with the Government Actuary's Department's examination of the latest life expectancy projections data. Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'There will be many factors that need to be assessed during this review of the state pension age. 'One of the most important will be healthy life expectancy which according to the latest data hovers in the early 60s. 'This means the reality is that many people will face real difficulties in continuing to work until their mid-to-late 60s and could face a sizeable income gap while they wait to receive their state pension.' Rachel Vahey, head of public policy at AJ Bell, said: 'An ageing population places an increasing burden on taxpayers, with state pension costs rising and fewer working-age taxpayers to cover the cost. 'Future governments will hope that an improved economy and growing tax receipts will help alleviate some of the pressure. But that can't be guaranteed and there needs to a be a credible plan for maintaining affordability.'
Daily Record
22-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Record
New State Pension age review could see people working longer before retirement
The UK Government has launched the State Pension Age Review, commissioning two independent reports due to be completed by 2027. Pension Credit – Could you or someone you know be eligible? The State Pension age is set to start rising from 66 to 67 next year, with the increase due to be completed for all men and women across the UK by 2028. The planned change to the official age of retirement has been in legislation since 2014 with a further rise from 67 to 68 set to be implemented between 2044 and 2046. The UK Governmen t has announced a new Pension Commission to investigate how to boost pension saving with its findings due to be published in 2027. Areas for consideration will include auto-enrolment saving rates, boosting saving among groups such as the self-employed and a review of the State Pension age. Dr Suzy Morrissey will report on factors the UK Government should consider relating to State Pension age and the Government Actuary's Department will prepare a report on the proportion of adult life in retirement. Commenting on the UK Government's plans to review the State Pension, including the age at which it is received, Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville, said: 'The Scottish Government has consistently warned the UK Government against raising the State Pension age more quickly than is needed. 'So, I welcome the fact the UK Government has committed to gathering more evidence before making any final decisions on a timeline. We look forward to the UK Government sharing their proposals with us and we will respond in due course. 'I am particularly keen to see that the difference in average life expectancies found across regions in the UK is fully considered. Otherwise, generations may be left behind, just as they have been before. 'While State Pension policy is reserved to the UK Government, we are committed to enabling older people to have a dignified retirement. That's why, for example, we are providing a Pension Age Winter Heating Payment to 720,000 more people this year, helping to ease the burden of rising energy costs.' Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'The Commission will look at state pension and whether the age at which we receive it should increase. Again, it's not an easy decision - we've seen increases in life expectancy slow down in recent years. There's also the issue of healthy life expectancy to consider. 'This currently hovers in the early 60s, so the reality is that many people cannot keep working into their late 60s. Any decision to increase state pension age further needs to take into account what needs to happen to help people remain in the workforce for longer, so they don't fall down the income gap between leaving work and taking their state pension.' She added: 'It's also an opportunity for the government to assess the long-term position of the Triple Lock. Speculation continues to swirl as to whether the Triple Lock's days are numbered but the cost of maintaining it will need to be balanced against the role it plays in helping workers, particularly those who are lower paid to meet their target retirement income.' State Pension age rise 2026-2028 The State Pension age rise from 66 to 67 will affect those born between April 6, 1960 and March 5, 1961. Anyone born between these dates is being prompted to check their State Pension age on here to find out the earliest point at which they'll be eligible for their State Pension. Check your State Pension age online Your State Pension age is the earliest age you can start receiving your State Pension. It may be different to the age you can get a workplace or personal pension. Anyone of any age can use the online tool at to check their State Pension age, which can be an essential part of planning your retirement. You can use the State Pension age tool to check: When you will reach State Pension age Your Pension Credit qualifying age When you will be eligible for free bus travel - this is at age 60 in Scotland Check your State Pension age online here. How to get full New State Pension Alice Haine, personal finance analyst at Bestinvest by Evelyn Partners, the online investment platform, said: 'People typically need at least 10 qualifying years of NI (national insurance) contributions to receive any State Pension at all and at least 35 years to receive the full New State Pension - though they don't need to be consecutive years. 'Plugging gaps can be quite an expensive process, so it is important to assess whether you actually need to buy back any missing years. This will depend on how many more years you plan to work, and whether you are eligible for NI tax credits, which fill the gaps, such as those who have been sick, were unemployed or took time out to raise a family or care for elderly relations. 'Plugging gaps in your record is relatively straightforward since the Government rolled out its new NI payments services in April last year - a State Pension forecast tool that has been checked by 3.7m since its launch.' She continued: 'People simply need to log into their personal tax account or the HMRC app to not only view any payment gaps but also check if they can plug those gaps directly through the UK Government's digital channels. 'A short survey assesses the person's suitability to pay online with those eligible to pay directly given a series of options to plug any gaps depending on when someone wants to stop working. 'Calculating whether to top up can be confusing though and ultimately there is no point paying for more years than you need because you won't get that money back.' Ms Haine added: 'People who might need to top up include those that took a career break as well as low earners or expatriates living and working abroad."
The National
13-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Welsh Labour can call out their UK boss. Why can't Scottish Labour?
Some people might be tempted to think this is proof positive that devolution works; that there is no need for Scotland to follow slavishly in English and Welsh footsteps. They could not be more wrong. The truth of the matter is that taking a different path from our southern neighbours is a costly business. According to Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Social Justice Secretary, we spent a not-so-small fortune last year trying to stop Westminster policies affecting Scots voters. Mitigating the iniquitous bedroom tax cost us a kick in the pants off £75 million, while ignoring the benefit cap rushed us another £7.8m with even more spent ameliorating hardship payments in housing. A grand total of more than £90m annually. READ MORE: Pat Kane: Scotland is heading back into a cycle of 'extraction without consent' All of which has to be found from an annual grant which also restricts our ability to borrow and expressly forbids bursting our budget. These are the penalties of proffering a begging bowl rather than demanding independence of thought and making our own fiscal rules. Not so much an indication that devolution works, but evidence in scarce cash of how demanding it has become to do our own thing. We're not alone. The Welsh First Minister made a speech last month which emphasised what she called the 'Red Welsh Way'. The kind of speech Labour voters in Scotland never hear from Anas Sarwar; a speech making it clear that Wales needs and enjoys a seat at the top table. Eluned Morgan told her troops at Labour's Welsh conference: 'Here in Wales, we don't follow the crowd. We lead in our own way – shaped by our Welsh values, our people and our priorities. The Red Welsh Way … proudly distinct, rooted in justice.' Welsh Labour leader and First Minister Eluned MorganShe was careful, of course, to talk up the partnership with Keir Starmer and endorse devolution, but left little doubt that where London and Cardiff differed, she would encourage Wales to go its own way. It went down rather well. Given that eradicating child poverty is a stated aim of both the Scottish and Westminster governments, it's instructive to note that only in Scotland do we have the child support payment, widely regarded as a major source of poverty relief for hard-pressed families, while the hated two-child cap on benefits – and the associated rape clause – will go in Scotland from early March next year, while Westminster continues to prevaricate and dither. Already there are dark hints that scrapping the two-child cap will be among the collateral damage of the recent Commons rebellion if Rachel Reeves continues to play hardball. Here in Scotland, it will mean that families already in receipt of universal benefits will be able to access monthly payments matching the Universal Credit child element: £292.81 per eligible child. READ MORE: Poverty levels in Scotland below UK for 20 years, graphs show Now that we have our own Social Security agency, you might think this offers a layer of protection. It has meant we no longer use Pip or personal independence payments. Instead, we use Adult Disability Payments, which means that any alteration in the Commons won't apply here. Unalloyed good news you might think, except that the London-based Department of Work and Pensions still operates Universal Credit payments. Any alteration to them will inevitably impact on the Barnett formula, which is used to calculate the block grant to Scotland. Or, as I prefer to think of it, Scotland's pocket money. Just the same, we do now have a range of payments which are unique to this country – as I say, an expensive but necessary hobby. Social Security Scotland is now responsible for delivering a range of benefits, including some that are new and unique to Scotland, such as the Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Payments. The Best Start element covers a whole range of payments, many of which start during pregnancy and continue through early learning and school years. John Swinney's SNP Government has said ending child poverty is its top priority (Image: Jane Barlow) Of course, these are only available to families already poor enough to qualify for other benefits, but isn't that the point? Giving money to people who don't need it is what irritates the hell out of many taxpayers, even when they acknowledge the eye-watering cost of means testing. The massive row which engulfed Labour over proposed 'reforms' to the benefits system wasn't just because of the ballooning cost of sickness benefit, but because the folk who promised change to their new constituents on their doorsteps never envisaged that the change in question was to emerge as red Tories. The UK Government will argue that they have done many fine things which go largely unacknowledged. That may be so, but when among your first acts in office are to hit pensioners, threaten to disenfranchise thousands of benefit recipients and get the farming community on the march, you can hardly blame people for muttering that this was certainly not why they voted for the people's party. The other morning, I heard a GP pushing back very hard on the idea that the people going through her consulting room were swinging the lead rather than avoiding paid employment. She said that the Covid years had changed her clients beyond recognition and that we were facing an explosion in mental health problems. READ MORE: Reform UK attack King Charles over small boats comments in UK-France speech When you look at the waiting lists for appointments in that area, it's difficult to disagree. Bit by bit, we are beginning to learn how profoundly those three years of social restrictions have impacted huge swathes of society. Some of the people most severely affected were those who did work during the pandemic, who kept the show on the road for the rest of us. Everyone from health professionals to delivery drivers didn't have the luxury of observing social distancing. That period also saw the birth of them and us – the people stuck up high rises with small children who tried to marry their own need to keep working and put food on the table with the imperative to ensure their children were still being home-schooled. And those of us who had ready access to wide open spaces and could construct a social bubble in our own locality. That divide was mirrored in the teaching profession – I know of teachers who worked their socks off providing oven-ready lessons for the children of already stressed parents, and some others who didn't seem to give too much of a stuff. Let's hope we can recall some of the fallout from those years, because most of the scientific community is convinced that we are not that far away from another pandemic, given the nature of globalisation and travel. Not a pretty thought, but one essential to confront. Let's hope that if there is a next time round, the door won't be flung open to all the chancers who thought it perfectly OK to line their own pockets on the back of national misery. Let's hope too that if there is a next time round, Scotland will finally be in charge of its own destiny. It has become fashionable in some quarters to decry any notion that Scotland is in any way exceptional. That we are somehow more thirled to social justice than elsewhere and less racist with it. In truth, so many people in this country are too preoccupied with surviving, with trying to have some month left at the end of their money, to fret about matters constitutional. It doesn't mean they can't be inspired and motivated by clarion calls to a different future. Morgan in Wales has doubtless got more than half an eye on the Welsh elections next year. Surely time for some Scots politicians to enthuse their troops too. The electoral clock is ticking ever more loudly.
Powys County Times
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Powys County Times
Scottish government minister says UK welfare reforms should be abandoned
The UK Government must abandon its 'unfair' welfare reforms in the wake of its late climbdown on a key plank of the proposals, Scotland's Social Justice Secretary has said. Shirley-Anne Somerville was commenting after the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill passed its first legislative hurdle at Westminster. Ahead of the crunch vote, Sir Keir Starmer ditched a mainstay of his welfare reform agenda as he battled to get the draft laws through the House of Commons. In a major concession as MPs prepared to vote, the Prime Minister shelved plans to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment (Pip), with any changes now only coming after a review of the benefit. Under Scotland's devolved social security system, Pip is currently being replaced by the Adult Disability Payment. Reacting to events at Westminster, Ms Somerville reiterated the Scottish Government's pledge not to cut that benefit. 'Despite the panicked, last-minute concessions they have made, if the UK Government presses ahead with cuts to disability support they will plunge more people into poverty,' said the SNP MSP. 'That is unconscionable. 'Their approach also risks creating a deeply unfair two-tier system, pushing the impact of cuts onto future applicants for disability benefits. 'The UK Government needs to stop balancing the books on the backs of some of the most vulnerable people in society. 'They need to properly listen to the overwhelming criticism their proposals have generated and do the right thing by disabled people by abandoning this bill entirely. 'I want to reassure disabled people in Scotland, that the Scottish Government will not cut Scotland's Adult Disability Payment, we will not let disabled people down as the UK Government has done.' The decision to remove the Pip changes from the Bill was announced just 90 minutes before MPs voted. The legislation passed by 335 votes to 260, majority 75.
Rhyl Journal
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Rhyl Journal
Scottish government minister says UK welfare reforms should be abandoned
Shirley-Anne Somerville was commenting after the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill passed its first legislative hurdle at Westminster. Ahead of the crunch vote, Sir Keir Starmer ditched a mainstay of his welfare reform agenda as he battled to get the draft laws through the House of Commons. In a major concession as MPs prepared to vote, the Prime Minister shelved plans to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment (Pip), with any changes now only coming after a review of the benefit. Under Scotland's devolved social security system, Pip is currently being replaced by the Adult Disability Payment. Reacting to events at Westminster, Ms Somerville reiterated the Scottish Government's pledge not to cut that benefit. 'Despite the panicked, last-minute concessions they have made, if the UK Government presses ahead with cuts to disability support they will plunge more people into poverty,' said the SNP MSP. 'That is unconscionable. 'Their approach also risks creating a deeply unfair two-tier system, pushing the impact of cuts onto future applicants for disability benefits. 'The UK Government needs to stop balancing the books on the backs of some of the most vulnerable people in society. 'They need to properly listen to the overwhelming criticism their proposals have generated and do the right thing by disabled people by abandoning this bill entirely. 'I want to reassure disabled people in Scotland, that the Scottish Government will not cut Scotland's Adult Disability Payment, we will not let disabled people down as the UK Government has done.' The decision to remove the Pip changes from the Bill was announced just 90 minutes before MPs voted. The legislation passed by 335 votes to 260, majority 75. Despite the late concession, there were 49 Labour rebels, the largest revolt so far of Sir Keir's premiership.
