New calls to give State Pension payments ‘immediately' to disabled people over 60
A new online petition is urging the UK Government to give older people on disability benefits early access to their State Pension. The State Pension age is currently 66 for both men and women, but is set to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028.
Petition creator George Bolgar has put forward a proposal that every person over 60 with a disability 'who has been unemployed for at least five years should be given the choice to retire and claim the State Pension immediately'.
The 'allow elderly disabled people to claim the State Pension early' petition has been posted on the Petitions Parliament website.
At 10,000 signatures of support it would be entitled to a written response from the UK Government, at 100,000, it would be considered by the Petitions Committee for debate in Parliament.
The petition states: 'We think that any disabled person aged 60 who has been unemployed for at least five years should be given the choice to retire and claim the State Pension immediately.
'We think that keeping people on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) unemployment list when there is no chance of them ever becoming employed again is extra work for the DWP and extra stress for the disabled person.
'We think that once someone is above 60 years old and unemployed their likelihood of being employable is extremely reduced.'
State Pension age rise
The State Pension age is set to start rising from 66 to 67 next year, with the increase due to be completed for all men and women across the UK by 2028. The planned change to the official age of retirement has been in legislation since 2014 with a further rise from 67 to 68 set to be implemented between 2044 and 2046.
The Pensions Act 2014 brought the increase in the State Pension age from 66 to 67 forward by eight years. The UK Government also changed the way in which the increase in State Pension age is phased so rather than reaching State Pension age on a specific date, people born between March 6, 1961 and April 5, 1977 will be able to claim the State Pension once they reach 67.
It's important to be aware of these upcoming changes now, especially if you have a retirement plan in place. Everyone affected by changes to their State Pension age will receive a letter from the DWP well in advance.
Under the Pensions Act 2007 the State Pension age for men and women will increase from 67 to 68 between 2044 and 2046.
The Pensions Act 2014 provides for a regular review of the State Pension age, at least once every five years. The review will be based around the idea people should be able to spend a certain proportion of their adult life drawing a State Pension.
A review of the planned rise to 68 is due before the end of this decade and had originally been scheduled by the then Conservative government to take place two years after the general election - which would have been 2026.
Any review of the State Pension age will take into account life expectancy along with a range of other factors relevant to setting the State Pension age.
After the review has reported, the UK Government may then choose to bring forward changes to the State Pension age. However, any proposals would have to go through Parliament before becoming law.
Check your State Pension age online
Your State Pension age is the earliest age you can start receiving your State Pension. It may be different to the age you can get a workplace or personal pension.
Anyone of any age can use the online tool at GOV.UK to check their State Pension age, which can be an essential part of planning your retirement.
You can use the State Pension age tool to check:
When you will reach State Pension age
Your Pension Credit qualifying age
When you will be eligible for free bus travel - this is at age 60 in Scotland
Check your State Pension age online here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
5 minutes ago
- BBC News
UK's asylum hotel bill down 30%, government says
The government spent nearly a third less on hotels to house asylum seekers between April 2024 and March 2025, according to newly published Home Office's annual accounts show £2.1bn was spent on hotel accommodation - an average of about £5.77m per day, down from £3bn or £8.3m per day, the previous obtained by BBC Verify shows the saving has been driven by a reduction in the average nightly cost per person housed, after a government move to use cheaper forms of accommodation and room Dr Peter Walsh, from the Migration Observatory think tank at Oxford University, warned that the surge in small boat crossings seen since March could lead to a renewed reliance on hotels."I don't think hotels are going away anytime soon based on based on current trends," he accommodation is used when there is no other housing available for asylum seekers, and the government has committed to stop using asylum hotels by the end of this were 32,345 people in asylum hotels at the end of March 2025, up from 29,585 people at the end of June last year, but lower than the total in December. A senior Home Office source said one of the main factors behind the saving was moving some asylum seekers from hotels into other types of cheaper said the department had prioritised moving families and children into regular housing so they were not living in hotels for long periods of News understands the majority of people moved out of hotels are now living in local housing, or houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), a type of rented accommodation where at least three individuals share the use of a bathroom and of these properties have been acquired through the government's contracts with Serco, one of the three companies responsible for asylum savings have also been made by renegotiating elements of those contracts, which were originally signed by the previous Conservative have previously told MPs that greater room-sharing in hotels has helped reduce the number of sites and per head costs over the past financial is not clear how many people usually share a room, but Home Office minister Angela Eagle has previously said "people can double up or treble up" if rooms are big Home Office accounts suggest 273 hotels were in use in March 2024 but that number has now fallen by 71. The average nightly cost per person fell from £162.16 in March 2023 to £118.87 by March 2025, according to BBC Verify's analysis of official data obtained through a Freedom of Information request. The Home Office's accounts also show that almost £50m of public money was effectively written off after the Labour government scrapped a Conservative plan to use the RAF Scampton site in Lincolnshire to house asylum of millions had already been spent on the site when Labour came to power and axed the Home office annual report says that decision resulted in a "constructive loss of £48.5m", but a department source said the site would have been an even more expensive option than hotels, even taking into account the loss report also confirmed that £270m paid to Rwanda to help support the country's economic development was not refunded after the UK government scrapped the Rwanda ministers had planned to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda to deter people from crossing the Channel in small the scheme was stalled by legal challenges and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said it led to just four people being removed to the country Rwandan government said last year that it was "under no obligation" to pay back the £270m after Labour scrapped the deal.
BreakingNews.ie
5 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Syrian government forces preparing to return to province amid renewed clashes
Syrian government forces are preparing to return to a southern region after renewed clashes broke out between Druze armed groups and members of Bedouin clans, leaving tens of thousands of people displaced in a worsening humanitarian crisis. The government forces had withdrawn from the province of Sweida following a ceasefire agreement announced on Wednesday that halted much of the violence that plagued the area earlier in the week, but which ultimately did not stop the fighting. Advertisement Officials were negotiating with Druze factions on an agreement to re-enter the area to impose stability and protect state institutions, according to two Syrian officials. They said an agreement was reached, but later said the deployment was delayed, without giving an explanation. Tens of thousands of people remained displaced by the violence and the United Nations has been unable to bring in much-needed humanitarian and medical aid because of ongoing clashes. Clashes began on Sunday between Druze militias and local Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes. Government forces intervened, nominally to restore order, but ended up taking the Bedouins' side against the Druze. Israel later in the week launched air strikes against Syrian forces in defence of the Druze. Bedouin fighters gather in front of a burning shop (Ghaith Alsayed/AP) The fighting killed hundreds of people over four days, with allegations that government-affiliated fighters executed Druze civilians and looted and burned homes. Advertisement Israel launched dozens of air strikes on convoys of government fighters and even struck the Syrian Defence Ministry headquarters in central Damascus. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel, where they are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the Israeli military. A truce mediated by the US, Turkey and Arab countries was announced on Wednesday. Under the accord, Druze factions and clerics were to maintain the internal security in Sweida as government forces pulled out, Syria's interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa said on Thursday. By late Thursday clashes were flaring again between the Druze and Bedouin groups in parts of Sweida. State media reported Druze militias carried out revenge attacks against Bedouin communities, leading to a new wave of displacement. The governor of the neighbouring province of Daraa said in a statement that more than 1,000 families had been displaced to the area from Sweida as a result of 'attacks on Bedouin tribes by outlaw groups'. Advertisement The UN's migration agency said on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced altogether since clashes started on Sunday. It also noted that essential services, including water and electricity, have collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems are widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa are under severe strain. Bedouin groups and supporters arrived on Friday from other areas of Syria to join the fight. On the outskirts of Sweida, groups of them gathered in front of buildings that had been set ablaze. In Israel, members of the Druze community had called for intervention to protect the Druze in Syria. But elsewhere in the region, Druze leaders have rejected Israeli intervention. Advertisement The spiritual leader of the Druze community in Lebanon, Sheikh Sami Abi al-Muna, said on Friday at a gathering of Druze officials in Beirut that sectarian clashes in Syria 'give an excuse for Israeli intervention and for blowing up the situation in the region'. 'We do not accept to request protection from Israel, which we believe is harmful to our history and identity,' he said.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Brits 'not safe' as Putin 'challenges world order', warns ex-NATO chief
Lord Robertson of Port Ellen said the UK was "underprepared" and that citizens in the country were "not safe" amid increased threats coming from Russia and China Britain and its people are not safe amid crumbling army preparedness, a former NATO chief has warned Parliament. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, who co-wrote the Strategic Defence Review (SDR), said the UK is lacking in ammunition, training, people, logistics, and medical capacity. He told the upper chamber: 'Bearing in mind the difficult world that we live in and have to survive in, this is what I firmly believe: we are underinsured, we are underprepared, we are not safe. 'This country and its people are not safe. The British people are faced with a world in turmoil, with great power competitions spilling over now into conflict, with constant grey zone attacks on our mainland, and with Russia – often with the co-operation of Iran, China and North Korea – challenging the existing world order. 'We simply in this country are not safe.' The Labour peer wrote the review alongside the former commander of the joint forces command, General Sir Richard Barrons, and defence adviser Dr Fiona Hill. Artificial intelligence, drones and a £1 billion investment in homeland missile defence all form part of the review's plan to keep the UK safe in the face of threats from Vladimir Putin 's Russia and the rise of China. As peers debated the review on Friday, Lord Robertson said: 'When we say in the report that we are unprepared, it is an understatement. We don't have the ammunition, the training, the people, the spare parts, the logistics, and we don't have the medical capacity to deal with the mass casualties that we would face if we were involved in high intensity warfare. 'Over the years, and I suppose I must plead guilty to that as well, we took a substantial peace dividend, because we all believed that the world had changed for the better.' He continued: 'Sadly, we were not alone in that. There may have been over-optimism, but at worst wishful thinking, but the brutal, full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Putin's Russia three years ago was a savage wake-up call for all of us. 'This world we now live in has changed out of all recognition, and we have got to change as well.' Lord Robertson told the upper chamber he is 'confident' the review will 'intimidate our enemies, inspire our friends, invigorate our defence industry, and make our country safer'. Conservative shadow defence minister Baroness Goldie pressed the Government to be specific about the amount of money and timing needed for defence spending to reach 3 per cent of GDP. She said: 'In this exciting and brave new world for defence, the elephant in the room is money, and none of this excellent aspiration proposed by the review means anything without attaching pound signs to the proposals. 'Ambition must translate into specific financial commitment." Former military chief Lord Stirrup said the Government's spending would need to be restructured to be 'anywhere near 3.5 per cent of GDP for defence by 2035'. 'There is no sign of any urgency on any side of the political divide on addressing this crucial matter,' the crossbench peer added.
