I note your concern around the statement that the state pension is a benefit. I agree with your sentiment - that something into which a person contributes should not be considered a "benefit" as such, in the same way that Universal Credit is, for example.
However, the government and the Department for Work and Pensions in their infinite wisdom are adamant that the State Pension is a benefit.
That it is considered by the law of the land to be a benefit, rather than a right for people who pay NI contributions into all their working lives, may well concern all of us.
Like millions of other women, I've paid in almost 30 years now in the expectation of retiring at a reasonable age - first I was told 65, then 67, and now people are talking about raising it to 72 before I can access my state pension.
It does not seem right that current generations of workers are paying the pensions of current retirees, nor that the government's clever economists cannot commit to a better way of providing for people that does not 'rob' Peter (the current generation) to pay Paul (and ad infinitum throughout the generations).
I fear, as indeed you may, that when our children/grandchildren come to retire, there will be no state pension for them at all - or at the very least, a means-tested "benefit" that is chopped and changed at the whim of whoever is in government.
I certainly believe my son will not have any automatic right to a state pension when he gets to whatever state pension age will be for him, and I worry about his future.
But - whether it should be called a benefit or not, the government has deemed it as such, so Amy was correct to use that word in that context.
Coming back onto the paragraph at the end; I have spoken with Amy and I understand what she meant. The wording - as you pointed out - could be open to a negative interpretation that could be read as dismissive. That was not the intention. Amy is passionate about pension fairness.
Like Amy, I am emotionally worn out from reading and writing the same debates over and over again, while governments come and go and do very little to put things right for ordinary people.
