The way the cost of living is so high in the UK, I doubt that someone can live on 140 pounds a week. Many years ago they detached the state pension from the cost of living index. The only people to actually make a profit or get by are those who pulled up roots and head for foreign shores. There with perhaps a local pension and or private pension are laughing their heads off as they actually draw money for hard working years and pay none back the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer. Somebody commented that Governments wait for Pensioners to drop in a hole somewhere - how true, unless it's their families. Governments have fiddled around with the retirement age also with this in mind. Some pay pensions to Government Employees, Armed Forces, and of course themselves at far earlier ages.

It would be par for the course that the people on the highest rate of pension have either never paid into the system in their lives, or who have " worked" for the government or local authority!

Maybe the "Pensions Minister" should do something to reduce the complex nature of pensions then?

But I'll gurantee the fat cats in the City will bleat on about their loss of commission for doing bugger all?

It is interesting that all of the pension salesforces in the UK have now been effectively regulated out of existence. It is also worth noting that all IFAs (Independent Financial Advisers) will now not be able to receive commission on pension sales. By the way, there is NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD that has banned commission payments (apart from North Korea) on financial products.

Selling a pension is an extremely difficult task. You are trying to persuade someone to give up hard cash now for an unpredictable benefit that may be payable to him/her at some time in the distant future. By abolishing the pensions salesforces you are guarranteeing that the number of people taking up private pensions is destined to plummet further.

The law of unintended consequence strikes again.

As you may be wondering.......yes, I sold pensions for ten years as an IFA. Thank God I got out of that many years ago!

Yeah, incredible isn't it, such a variation in what pensioners get, to think that those who work all their lives and pay in tens of thousands of pounds get more than those who sit on their ars*s all their lives, I really can't understand why this is allowed to happen?...........And it seems the Government are about to change it to make it "fairer", with equal payments made to all !!............................Seems like going to work all those years was pretty pointless at the end of the day !!

Dont go worrying yourselves over your state pension....because by the time this goverment has screwed up on top of the last goverment,then been ousted for another party of rule they will have managed to have starved the pensioners to death,and the rest will have self euthanised themselves and the ones that havent will be sent to extermination centres, and it wont really matter how much you have paid in the outcome will be the same,these robbing sons of .itches will have screwed the country completeley up and feathered their own messy little nests.

During the '70s the different govts came up with all sorts of ways to dip into the wage packets without calling it taxes. We were told that if we volunteered to make a higher contribution, and delay collecting for as long as possible, we would benefit from increase pensions. Those of us who survived, faced another hurdle: NO INFLUENTIAL representation. We are an easy target. No wonder more and more people are finding it difficult to believe that there will be jam tomorrow. The reasons why there are different tariffs are obvious. Pensioners are not responsible for our poverty and should not be penalised. If the pensions dept is having difficulty making the calculations, drop me a line.

About time we reverted to ,if you pay in you get it out,you pay nothing you get nothing, this should be the case for pensions,and any other benifits.As for £140 per week, what use is that ,I would be £s down .I am glad I retire next week as this would be no use to me at all. Having put in 50 years as a carpenter, I had the forsight to pay into private pensions as well as the state one, damn glad I did ,My wife who retired some years ago also paid a full stamp which means she also has her own pension.The downside is I will still be paying tax to keep the workshy and useless wastes of space that this country seems hellbent on giving money to.,bring back the workhouse.

Ros Altmann, director-general of over-50s group Saga, said the state pension system should stop "penalising" women
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My mum gets around £2 per week less than my dad. What Ros Altmann failed to say was that women up till now have got the pension 5 years earlier. Thats a nice penalty.

Worked for 49 years, payed in at the top rate, now receive a pension at the top rate. Simples.