Can anyone tell me if the equalisation of SPA will have an effect on Pension Credit? ie. will the current entitlement age of 60 for Pension Credit also be raised in line with the new rules for State Pension , because people will not be pensioners at 60 anymore once the new rules take effect.
Thanks.

yes, for example hb bulletin g20/2007 said

'... the main provisions of the Pensions Act 2007 ... to be introduced from 6 April 2010, will make State Pensions simpler, fairer and more widely available to both men and women.

Other changes to State Pensions will also be brought in from 6th April 2010. These changes, which equalise State Pensions provision for men and women, were legislated for in the Pensions Act 1995.

The main changes (include) ... consequential changes to the age conditions attached to other benefits, eg the maximum age for receipt of Income Support (IS) and the minimum age for receipt of Pension Credit will increase in line with the rise in women’s SPa.'

see rightsnet news Equalisation of state pension provision from April 2010: New DWP guidance (11 December 2007).

Thankyou!

More details now also published at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/pensionsreform/pdfs/third-party-briefing-pack.pdf

They legislated for this in sect 1 of the state pension credit act by defining qualifying age as the pensionable age of a woman

My reading of this is that the pensionable age in s. 1 SPCA 2002 is individual specific rather than being a universal "pension age".

So my understanding is then that a person who attains the age of 60 before 06/05/10 would continue to be able to make a fiirst claim (subject to normal backdating rules) after that date.

If I have got this totally wrong - someone put me right

You're right. It's the claimant's date of birth that matters. For example if the claimant's date of birth is 06/04/1950 - 05/05/1950 then their (Womens) State Pension age (SPa) date is 06/05/10. This then is the qualifying date for Pension Credit for both sexes. There's a useful chart on page 24 in the third party briefing pack produced by the DWP that lists dates of birth against SPa up to 2020.

This has now moved web address to http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/third-party-briefing-pack.pdf

And theres a useful tool on directgov to find out what your Qualifying Age for State Pension will be:
http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/state-pension/age-calculator.asp

Its not just about equalisation of pension age, but increases the age to 68yrs for both men and woman. Being forced to work upto age 68 - the government were thinking of age 70 - this further increase may yet happen.

Currently you can continue working over the pension age by choice with agreement of your employer, however many large and smaller employers insist on retirement at the pensionable age. It would have been better to change employment legislation to allow those who wanted to continue working to do so - instead of forcing everyone to literaly work till they die. Not long ago there was talk of reducing the retirement age so people could enjoy their retirement, not anymore.

So we will be left with 66 year olds with ill health being refused ESA and being forced to go on JSA training courses on how to use yellow pages, fork lift truck driving, gardening etc and listening to the likes of Hayley at A4E unles they lose their contract for alleged fraudulent claims.

So were in the world of workhouse for the poor, unemplyed, sick and disabled (but not too sick to be sick) and forced labour for the elderly -

Not to mention removal of AA and care component of DLA from claimants to give to local authorities to mis-manage .

As some singer once said - Oh what a wonderful world

Yep, you have truly seen into the future and it does not look good ... when you think of all the work done to maximise incomes and the input for today's pensioners to secure an enjoyable retirement, it makes you dread what is ahead for us! Try telling your colleagues to pay into private pension schemes which are also aligning the age you can start to receive it. Now I am getting very depressed!