British pension provision is particularly inconsiderate in transitions to new requirements. Apart from the freezing pensions for some expats there are additional changes. A full pension now needs 35 years instead of 30. Plus if you're a woman born in the 1950s pensionable age has been moved from 60 to 66. All very well in the interests of equality but not enough notice was given to enable you to make provision even if you could.

I'm pretty pissed off by the whole thing.

and so you should be. Bloody stupid how the Gov't keeps on moving the requirement as well as the qualifying age

Good luck to you Bats, maybe just maybe there will be another change in your favour

FWIW

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension/eligibility

My wife qualified for state pension in 2007 under the much older rules that required her to have 39 years of NIC's and before 'pension reform' that lowered it to 30 years NIC's for full pension

Fortunately, I missed having to have to meet the requirement of 44 years NIC's for when I turned pension age in 2012, it was then down to 30 years NIC's for full pension

The new 'state pension' rules are tight, 35 years + moving the qualifying age out & even worse because the Category B pension is gone as is survivor pension

Under the old old rules that many fell into

"Men born before 1945 and women born before 1950"

You need more qualifying years to get a full State Pension and a certain minimum number of years to get any State Pension at all.

Number of years needed for a full State Pension

Men born before 6 April 1945 44 years
Women born before 6 April 1950 39 years

Minimum years need for any state pension

Men 11 years

Women 10 years

I'll get my pension when I'm 65 and 10 months, a friend from school is 9 months old than i am and she will get her pension when she's 64 and 8 months.
Really bloody annoying.

I hear you. Same for me and an old school pal who is older that me . Started full time work the same time. She gets her pension a year before me.

Why is that, isn't it on 65th birthday or are you talking about non-state pension (based on work start date)?

The age has been raised and it's staggered.

Not sure about the "and x months" part. I get mine at 66.

I thought it was just 66, 67, 68 etc...no Adrian Mole stuff.

That's the part I was wondering about.

I'm the same, I get my Govt. pension from the UK when I am 65 and 6.5 months. My birthday is Star Wars Day and I will receive mine in late November. It's all to do with the sliding scale of clawbacks, sigh.

Her daughter would be in her 70s (give or take). May well be dead.

Because the effing government changed the state pension date fir everyone to 66 after earlier changing it to 65 for women. Their changeover dates are staggered depending on your birthday so women born in the 1950s are royally stitched up. They changed it once and gave done notic. The second age change didn't give enough notice, that's if you even had any notice. So there's a huge gap in what people were expecting and what will happen. It's extremely unfair.

I thought in some cases it was 68 now for women?

Until 1995, law was women got a pension at 60.

In 1995, it was changed to equalise it over time with men at 65 between 2010 and 2020 (so giving 15-25 years notice).

In 2011, because male pension age was changed to 66, the timetable for women was changed as well, to equalise it at the new, higher level, by the same finish date, over the time between 2016 and 2020 (giving 5-10 years notice).

This acceleration meant some women had their expected pension date changed by as much as 2 years, so the increase was capped at 18 months. This means some people in the transition years retiring at unusual times, against the normal birthday retirement both before and (in theory) after the change.

Oh, and for fun, the 2014 act changed it again so the new age is 67, to be reached between 2026 and 2028. People born after 1977 will have a later date, as yet unplanned/announced.

It's the notice that's a major issue for me. Perhaps it's not as bad for us blokes as the women (although we did always have to wait the extra 5 years ) but I remember posting that within my first ten years here there had been three big changes.

When I left the UK I had 32 years in so I was due for about 80%. Then they dropped the 40 year requirement to 30 so it looked like I'd get the full rate and then it went up again to 35 so still a partial payment, albeit a partial of a higher rate than it would otherwise have been.

They always say to plan for these things but while waiting beyond age 65 was something already pending (detail not announced yet) it's hard to plan when they make changes like this in so few years.

Just as well my vision was always that the state pension was going to be a bonus it was just a case of how big a bonus.