Women benefit as pension-qualifying age is cut

Women benefit as pension-qualifying age is cut

	Published : Thu, 30 Nov 2006 14:20 By : Richard Owen Print this Story

LONDON - The qualifying period for pensions will be reduced to 30 years from 2010, according to the government pensions bill published today. This step will be a massive boon for women as the present age to qualify is 39 years, while it is 44 years for men.

The cut is being seen as a step to eliminate the gender gap prevalent in the labour market with hundreds to women benefiting from the reduction in the qualifying period. John Hutton, the Work and Pensions Secretary introduced these reforms, which will also see women not being fined for the time they take off in order to look after their children or sick relatives.

Currently only 30 percent of the women are eligible for full state pension as opposed to 85 percent men. When these reforms come into effect from 2010, the number of women who will qualify for a state pension will increase to 75 percent, according to current estimates. This number will increase to 90 percent by 2025. At least 300,000 women will qualify for a full pension by 2020.

Overall it is thought that 120,000 people will be able to take advantage of the carer's benefits. Among them 85,000 will be women. What this means is that if a woman takes time off to care for her children, those missed years will be counted in her overall credit and she will receive the same pension on retirement as a man.

"The bill we are publishing today would give a guarantee to link the Basic State Pension to earnings, enshrining this commitment in primary legislation," said Mr Hutton. "This would mean that the state pension would be worth twice as much in 2050 than it would have been without reform."

Although women will benefit by the new rules, the National Pensioners' Convention felt that they would still be hard done by. It said that almost three million pensioners would have died by the time the rules come into effect.