Talking point – Women and carers
Talking point is now closed. Thank you for your contributions. These pages are retained as an archive of what was discussed.
Some groups of people face difficulties in building up State Pension entitlement.
Those contributing to society through parenting or caring may be in this position, as breaks in employment or time out of the labour market can reduce overall lifetime earnings and affect the ability to build up both state and private pension provision.
In response to this challenge, the Government’s White Paper on pensions reform proposes to:
- reduce the number of qualifying years needed for a full basic State Pension
from 44 for men and 39 for women to 30 for all those reaching State Pension
age from 2010. For more information on this, read our fact sheet Making
the State Pension fairer and more widely available (30KB)
; - convert Home Responsibilities Protection into a positive weekly credit, aligning the rules for when it is available between the basic State Pension and the State Second Pension;
- establish a new Carer’s Credit for those undertaking care for
the sick and severely disabled for 20 hours or more a week. For more information
on this, read our fact sheet New Carer’s Credit (52KB);
- abolish the minimum contribution conditions in the basic State Pension and the Labour Market Attachment Test in the State Second Pension, to ensure that every year of contributions or credits counts; and
- further simplify and modernise the state pension system by abolishing outmoded elements such as adult dependency increases and National Insurance autocredits.