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Money Box: Why is the state pension so complicated?

10/04/2021

Why is the state pension so complicated?

BBC Radio 4 - Money Box, Why is the state pension so complicated?

Why do state pension amounts vary, Pockit complaints, escrow services and expat woes.

Two former pension ministers talk about the intricacies of the state pension system, some Pockit customers are struggling to access funds, and can escrow services help stop fraud?

More than 200 pensioners responded to a request to tell us how much their state pension was. They were nearly all different amounts. Next week the basic pension is rising to £137.60 a week and the new state pension paid to younger pensioners to £179.60. But those are amounts that hardly anyone actually gets.  So why are pensions - the old and the new - so complicated? 

Who better to answer that than two former pensions ministers. Sir Steve Webb had that job throughout the years of the coalition government and Baroness Ros Altmann for just over a year under David Cameron. 

Pockit is not a bank. But it does offer what it calls a current account. In fact that is a pre-paid card which customers load money onto and then can spend it almost as if it was a bank account. But some users have told Moneybox that their accounts have been locked and they they have struggled to get through to Pockit to find out what's going on. Paul talks to Martyn James, consumer rights expert at Resolver.

It is now more than 90 days since the UK left the ambit of the EU at the end of the transition period. And more than one million UK people living in EU countries must adapt to the laws that apply to foreign residents. And if you have thought that maybe one day you would like to go to work or retire to an EU country what are the rules you will now have to follow? This week we look at Spain which is home to more people from the UK than any other EU country. Barry Davys is a partner in Spectrum International Financial Adviser group based in Catalunya.

Researcher: Sowda Ali
Producer: Ben Carter
Editor: Richard Vadon

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