A non means tested flat rate pension for all?

I believe it is in addition to the State Pension, focused on low to moderate income earners who may not already have a company pension.

N.E.S.T.

Originally Posted by Hugh

I believe it is in addition to the State Pension, focused on low to moderate income earners who may not already have a company pension.

N.E.S.T.

interesting link Hugh , on the face of it i can't see anything wrong with the idea and will certainly help my wife who earns just over minimum wage but under the £7,475 band as she would be able to opt in

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Hugh

And isn't that were some of the burden should be? - NI doesn't cover/fund an adequate State Pension.

When I last checked the figures, 2005/2006 year. The NI contributions were in profit funny enough.

There was about 12 billions worth of NI spare from NI intake that was not used on NI based benefits pensions/IB and NI JSA. Where that 12 billion went I have no idea, I expect to fund a shortfall somewhere.

The government is good at misleading people.

If the government were to drop NI related benefits, I would expect them (if moral) to likewise drop NI taxation levels. Otherwise people are paying for the same thing twice.

BBC

National Insurance is now used to pay for:

• The NHS
• Unemployment benefit
• Sickness and disability allowances
• The state pension

NI is supposed to be "ring fenced" - meaning the money raised is only used for these areas and won't be spent on things like building schools or employing police officers.
However, the government can borrow from the National Insurance fund to help pay for other projects

In 2008-09, the forecast NI revenue was £97.7 billion (source - IFS page Page 4, Table 1, which also states on page 11)

National Insurance contributions (NICs) act like a tax on earnings, but their payment entitles individuals to certain (‘contributory’) social security benefits.

In practice, however, contributions paid and benefits received bear little relation to each other for any individual contributor, and the link has weakened over time. Some contributions (21% of the total in 2008–09) are allocated to the National Health Service; the remainder are paid into the National Insurance (NI) Fund and used to finance contributory benefits. The NI Fund is not a true fund in the sense that it has no significant balance available for investment: current contributions finance current benefits, and their notional separation from general government revenue is a largely meaningless accounting exercise.

Officially, the fund should not fall below one-sixth of NI expenditure, to ensure there is enough money available to pay benefits. Historically, this has been achieved through a grant from central taxation

btw, the Government aren't dropping the State Pension - NEST is to supplement it.

btw2, 16% of the UK population are pensioners - that's approx. 10 million people; divide the quoted surplus of £12 billion between them, and that would about £20 a week each for a year, then it would be all gone.....

[Chrysalis]

I know pensions arent been dropped, but NI based IB has been done in its ESA variant. In addition some forms of IB are to be time limited which is another budget drop.