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Pension Credit Plea for Unpaid Carers

By Christine Seib, Times Online

United Kingdom

September 20, 2005

The Government must credit people who act as unpaid carers with national insurance contributions if women are to be pulled out of poverty in retirement, insurers will tell David Blunkett, the Work and Pensions Secretary, at the Labour Party conference next week. Stephen Haddrill, director-general of the Association of British Insurers (ABI), will join Mr. Blunkett next Tuesday at a meeting organized by the Equal Opportunities Commission to discuss women's pensions. 
Mr. Haddrill said: "We should go for a pensions model where work other than what is normally recognized as work counts. We need to build the value of this work into the national insurance system so that it is captured as a contribution." 
Information already collected by the Government to pay child benefit could be used to determine the number of women doing unpaid work, he said. 
The ABI is trying to work out what the move would cost, and has already made a presentation to Lord Turner of Ecchinswell, chairman of the Pensions Commission, which is due to report on November 30 on solutions to Britain's pension crisis. Mr. Haddrill said he was certain that the ABI's idea would be more cost-effective than a citizen's pension, the flat-rate payment based on nationality. 
Government figures show that just 16 per cent of women qualify for the full basic state pension, usually because they missed national insurance contributions while bringing up children or caring for elderly relatives. Nearly a quarter of female pensioners live in poverty.


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