An online petition on the Parliamentary website has called on the DWP to introduce a big state pension change.
DWP told to ‘abolish’ Basic State Pension and give New rate to ‘all’
The Department for Work and Pensions has been told to “abolish” the Basic State Pension and give the New, Full rate to “all”. An online petition on the Parliamentary website has called on the DWP to introduce a big state pension change.
The petition warns: “Increase New State Pension and pay to all, abolish the old Basic State Pension.” It adds: “We think the government should put all our elderly onto the New State Pension, increase the New State Pension to a good percentage of average earnings and abolish the old ‘Basic State Pension’.
“We believe those on the Basic State Pension should be paid the difference accrued, since the New State Pension’s introduction, between the Basic State Pension and New State Pension.
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“Britain’s basic State Pension is currently £176.45 per week. Britain’s New State Pension is currently £230.25 a week. Britain’s average weekly earnings (AWE) were estimated at £722 in March 2025, by the Office for National Statistics.”
The petition has been backed by 358 signatures – with 10,000 signatures required to get a government response and at 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament.
The petition, created by Michael Thompson, has a deadline of 13 December 2025. All petitions run for 6 months.
The ‘old’ State Pension refers to the contributory state retirement pension system in place for people who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016: men born before 6 April 1951; and women born before 6 April 1953.
The old State Pension has two tiers: the basic State Pension (BSP) and the additional State Pension – which depended on the earnings or deemed earnings during their working life since 1978.
People built up entitlement through the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS) between 1978 and 2002, and the State Second Pension (S2P) from 2002 onwards.
The pre-April 2016 system is ‘old’ because the ‘new’ single-tier State Pension was introduced for people reaching State Pension age from 6 April 2016 onwards.