Aegon urges the government to end restrictions on state pension top-ups

Published on Friday 21 March 2008 20:14

EDINBURGH-based Aegon UK is calling on the government to help reduce the pensions' gender-gap by changing the national insurance top-up rules.

As the Pensions Bill moves towards the House of Lords stage, Baroness Hollis has said she will retable her previous amendment to remove the six-year time frame in which additional voluntary NI contributions must be made.

Baroness Hollis tabled this amendment in last year's Pensions Bill but, despite considerable cross-party support, the government overturned it on grounds of affordability.

Aegon hopes the House of Lords will support the amendment, putting pressure on the House of Commons to reconsider it when the bill returns to the Commons in April or May.

Under current rules, people can only pay a voluntary NI contribution to top up their basic state pension for a year within six years of having "missed" that year.

The Pensions Bill amendment is expected to allow people with broken career histories to extend the time, up to state pension age, in which they can make up to nine years additional national insurance contributions.

Aegon says the changes would mainly benefit women, who traditionally fall behind men in the pension stakes due to lower average earnings and broken career patterns.

Rachel Vahey, head of pensions development at Aegon, said: "The government gave some added flexibility in last year's Pensions Bill with the removal of the restrictions on safeguarded rights, which will especially benefit women. But more needs to be done to close the pensions' gender gap.

"Allowing people to top up their state pension benefits when it suits rather than within the current six-year window would give welcome flexibility. It would also help to bridge the cliff edge, at 2010, between women retiring in March who will need 39 years of NI contributions to qualify for the basic state pension and those retiring in April, who will only need 30 years."

"And the more people who qualify for the full basic state pension, the fewer will be caught out by a means- testing trap."