5. BASIC STATE PENSION AND PENSION CREDIT

Once you reach the State Pension age (currently 65 for men and gradually rising from 60 to 65 for women by November 2018), you may be able to claim a range of benefits to help you financially.

Under the Pensions Act 2011, women’s State Pension age will increase more quickly to 65 between April 2016 and November 2018. From December 2018 the State Pension age for both men and women will start to increase to reach 66 in October 2020.

These changes affect you if you are:

• a woman born on or after 6 April 1953; or

• a man born on or after 6 December 1953.

Under current legislation, State Pension age is planned to increase to:

• 66 between November 2018 and October 2020;

• 67 between 2034 and 2036 (however, chancellor George Osborne announced in the 2011 Autumn Statement that the increase to 67 will take now place between 2026 and 2028. This change to the timetable requires the approval of Parliament. The government’s Pensions Bill, introduced into the House of Commons in May 2013, was making its way through Parliament as this booklet went to press); and

• 68 between 2044 and 2046.

The main pension benefits are:

• Basic Pension;

• Additional Pension — this used to be called the SERPS earnings-related pension before it was renamed the State Second Pension in 2002; and

• Graduated Pension.

You should also receive Winter Fuel Payment (see page 66), and extra help (depending on your income) may be available from Pension Credit (see page 63) and/or Housing Benefit (see Chapter 6).

Your right to claim certain benefits changes once you reach the state retirement age. For example, you cannot claim Disability Living Allowance (or Personal Independence Payment) but can claim Attendance Allowance. You cannot claim Statutory Sick Pay or Employment and Support Allowance after the state pension age, but this might be paid for up to a year if you became sick before reaching the state pension age.