Pensions in the United Kingdom fall into three major divisions and 7 sub-divisions; State Pensions (Basic State Pension and State Second Pension (S2P)), Occupational Pensions (Defined Benefit Pension and Defined Contribution Pension) and Indiviual/Personal Pensions (Stakeholder Pensions, Group Personal Pensions and Self-Invested Personal Pension). Personal accounts, automatic enrolment and the minimum employer contribution will be new policies joining these from 2012.
The state provides basic pension provision intended to prevent poverty in old age. Until 2010 men over the age of 65 and women over the age of 60 were entitled to claim state pension; from April 2010 the age for women is gradually being harmonised to match that for men. Longer-term, the retirement age for both men and women will rise to 68 by no later than 2046 and possibly much earlier.
The basic state pension, then known as the "Old Age Pension" was introduced in the United Kingdom (including Ireland) in January 1909. A pension of 5 shillings per week (25p, equivalent, using the Consumer Price Index, to £19 in present day terms), or 7s.6d per week (equivalent to £29 today) for a married couple, was payable to a person with an income below £21 per annum (equivalent to £1600 today), following the passage of the Old Age Pensions Act 1908. The qualifying age was 70, and the pensions were subject to a means test.
Read more about Pensions In The United Kingdom: History, Pensions Act 2011, State Pensions, Occupational Pensions, Individual or Personal Pensions, Pension Provision By Age Group
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“Many old people receive pensions for no other reason, it seems to me, but as a compensation for having lived a long time ago.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
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—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 13:31,32.