Briefing Notes

Briefing Note 35 - State pension simplification?

The Government response to the Pensions White Paper consultation exercise announced that 'the Government is considering introducing a much simpler flat-rate State Second Pension (S2P), to replace the current complex arrangements'. This has been described as a radical simplification of the additional state pension2, which would result in 'in effect, a single pension which fully recognises their social contribution'. 

This Briefing Note describes the Government’s proposed change, and estimates what the impact could be on pension incomes. It shows that the proposed change allows S2P to be presented in a simpler way than today, that any gains or losses are likely to be marginal, but that there would still be significant differences between BSP and S2P.