State Retirement Pensions: Terminal Illnesses

(asked on 1st June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with charitable organisations for people with terminal-illnesses on enabling those people to draw their state-pension early.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 6th June 2018

The Government agrees with the independent reviewer of State Pension age, John Cridland, that the strengths of maintaining a universal State Pension age are the simplicity and clarity it provides both for individual and public planning purposes.

The welfare system provides a safety-net for those experiencing hardship, with a range of benefits tailored to individual circumstances. This system is designed to support people who are unemployed, have health conditions or disabilities, or have caring responsibilities, and therefore are most in need in the run up to their State Pension age.

John Cridland’s independent review of State Pension age was informed by consultation with a number of organisations, including on the subject of alternatives to a universal State Pension age. These organisations included several charities, which contributed to a written consultation and attended stakeholder events. A full list of contributors can be found at page 114 of John Cridland’s independent review of the State Pension age, ‘Smoothing the Transition’, which is available on www.gov.uk.

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