Call to increase State Pension payments to £19,760 per year

The suggested increase would bring State Pension payments into line with the recent rise on April 1 to the National Living Wage

A petition calling on the UK Government to increase State Pension payments to £19,760 per year, the equivalent to £380 each week, has received more than 30,000 signatures of support and is currently awaiting an official response from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The suggested increase would bring State Pension payments into line with the recent rise on April 1 to the National Living Wage, which is now £9.50 an hour for people aged over 23 working a 40-hour week - the equivalent to an annual salary of £19,760.

The DWP increased State Pension payments by 3.1% on April 11, 2022, which means the basic State Pension will go up to £141.85 per week from £137.60 and the full, new State Pension will rise to £185.15 from £179.60 - payments are made in arrears so the uplift will not been seen straight away.

But the cost of living crisis, heightened by soaring energy bills, is putting additional pressure on household finances.

For many of the 12.4 million people across the UK claiming their State Pension, including 981,399 Scots, it is potentially going to hit them hardest as this could be their only source of income.

However, the ‘Increase the State Pension to £19,760 a year (£380 a week)’ petition, which was created last month by Stephen Edward Wyatt and posted on the petition-parliament website, has now gathered more than 30,241 signatures of support - enough to trigger an official response from the UK Government.

At 100,000 signatures, this petition would also be considered for debate in Parliament.

The petition reads: The (UK) Government should raise the State Pension to match the yearly equivalent of the National Living Wage (NLW).

The NLW is rising to £9.50 an hour (i.e. £19,760 a year for F/T 40h per week), which we are told is needed to live, yet pensioners are expected to live on a state pension of £7,376 a year, it reads.

It continues: The State Pension is not enough to live on. All people regardless of standing are supposed to be looked on as equal; this is clearly not the case.