The current full state pension is about £97 a week for men and women The government is to “improve” the state pension to make it “decent… and easy to understand”, the Department of Work and Pensions says.
The department did not confirm newpaper reports that it could rise from about £97 a week for a single person to £140.
Business Secretary Vince Cable said the plan was “very radical”, but cautioned that it was “not an overnight change, but a long-term plan”.
Details will be proposed later this year by Pensions Minister Steve Webb.
Mr Cable, speaking to BBC One’s Breakfast, said the government wanted to “get away from what we’ve had for the past quarter of a century where state pensions have fallen behind the rest of the economy”.
“What Steve Webb and his colleagues want to do is to particularly protect the position of women, who because they weren’t covered by contributions don’t have a proper state pension,” he said.
Women frequently fail to qualify for the full basic state pension because they have stopped working to raise children and therefore lack enough National Insurance contributions.
Mr Cable told the BBC: “It’s to make sure people can look forward in retirement to a good state pension without means testing. We need something people can rely on.
“What he’s proposing is very radical. It will take time to introduce.”
The Daily Mail reported that a British residency requirement would replace the means-tested element.
Mr Cable also said the aim of the proposals was to “ensure that fewer and fewer pensioners are dragged into the means-tested system and they have a decent state pension that they continue to rely on. But… this depends on the state of the public finances as to when this is phased in.”
The DWP said: “The chancellor has confirmed that the government will improve the quality and accessibility of pensions in the Spending Review period.
“We will be bringing forward proposals for reform in a Green Paper later this year. Our aim will be a simple, decent state pension for future pensioners, which is easy to understand, efficient to deliver and affordable.”
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