State Pension age (FOI)

​Request

On the gov.je website page - Changes to the state pension age - it states that women who joined the Jersey Social Security scheme before 1 January 1975 will continue to be able to claim a pension when they reach the age of 60.

A

Could you clarify what all the methods were by which women were deemed to join the Social Security scheme at the time, ie was it by registering for a Social Security card, by paying contributions, or were there also other methods of joining such as registering for health benefits?

B

Since the changes to the state pension age came into force, how many women who were still entitled to a pension from the age of 60, and have reached that age, have not yet made contact with the Social Security Department to claim a pension as at 31 July 2019?

What I am trying to establish is the exact number of women, or if this is not possible an estimate, who may not be aware that they are entitled to a pension having reached the age of 60.

Response

A

People living in the Island at the time who attained school leaving age (which was 15 at that time) were required to register with the Social Security Department and would have been liable to pay Contributions.

People entering the Island would also have had to register with the Social Security Department and would have had a Contributions liability.

Any woman registering prior to 1 January 1975 would have a pension age of 60. Registration was compulsory.

B

Everyone who has contributions / credits on their record in the six years prior to their pension age are automatically contacted, regardless of where they are living. This is a business rule built into our computer system and has been in place for 30+ years.

Many women who have a pension age of 60 choose not to claim their pension at 60. This is because they may be in receipt of other benefits, or their husband may be in receipt of an increase of benefit in respect of them. Therefore they opt for this to continue rather than claim their own pension at 60.

All Jersey resident women who had entitlement and have not claimed have been contacted by Customer and Local Services (CLS) to invite them to claim their pension.

All women living locally have been made aware of their pension entitlement.

Less than five women living locally have not made contact with the department after letters were sent to them with regards to claiming their pension.

Women who no longer live in Jersey and who claim their pension in a reciprocal* country may indicate on their claim in that country that they have a contributions record in Jersey. That country will contact CLS in Jersey to enable Jersey to investigate their entitlement.

The relevant pensions’ legislation was applicable from 10 September 1951 to 31 December 1974 and allowed women to claim their pension at age 60 from 1951 to December 2019, a period of 68 years.

For women who do not live in Jersey it is not possible to answer request B, (or to estimate in a meaningful way) as this analysis would exceed the 12.5 hour permitted timeframe for answering Freedom of Information requests. Article 16 (Cost excessive) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

*Reciprocal countries are countries we have entered into an agreement with, so that each recognise an individual’s pensions contributions and any associated entitlements.

Article applied

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive.

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.