The change involves merging the state second pension with the basic state pension.
It will involve merging the state second pension with the basic state pension, to create one flat-rate payment.
The state pension comes in two parts, a basic state pension and an earnings related element previously called Serps, but now known as the State Second Pension (S2P).
Moreover, because it would be funded, the basic pension plus could be much larger than today's basic state pension: since 1979, the annual rate of return on private pensions was double that assumed by the government in drawing up its plans.
And we're going to start with the state pension, and more importantly the 'basic' state pension.
And the basic state pension will be re-linked in 2012 to earnings, which increase faster than prices.
The basic state pension, first introduced in 1908, is one of the sacred cows of Britain's welfare state.
The Scheme paid an amount in addition to the Basic State Pension related to earnings while you were working.
But these reforms pale into insignificance compared with its decision to maintain the price indexation of the basic state pension.
Although Mark will be entitled to a credit towards the basic state pension, that credit does not count towards the S2P.
He said no long term reform of the system could get off the ground, without an increase in the basic state pension.
Special benefits for pensioners, who will be gaining from separate plans to shore up the basic state pension, could also be reduced.
Mr Webb said the government would honour its "triple guarantee commitment" to increase the basic state pension by the greater of earnings, prices, or 2.5%.
The government's review will not consider scrapping the basic state pension.
Britain's government, for example, is considering whether to require people to save a share of their incomes in addition to contributing to the basic state pension.
In opposition he insisted on abandoning the Labour Party's commitment to restoring the earnings link for raising the basic state pension, ditched by Margaret Thatcher to save money.
In 2010 the number of years of NI contributions needed to qualify for a full basic state pension will come down to 30 for both men and women.
Despite his "I'm listening" pledge, Mr Blair immediately insisted he would not abide by the decision and would not restore the link between the basic state pension and average earnings.
This autumn's bidding for votes has shaken the implicit consensus, shared by all the parties, that the growing number of pensioners would put up with an ever-dwindling basic state pension.
So whereas Tony Blair comfortably survived early left-wing revolts, over a miserly increase to the basic state pension and cuts to single parents' benefit, the 10p guerrillas rapidly extracted their concessions.
"In the long-term we should probably choose between either converting it into an understandable compulsory savings scheme or integrating it into a more generous and understandable basic state pension, " he said.
"I made it clear this would apply to all claimants in work and out of work, and would cover all benefits other than disability payments and the basic state pension, " he told me.
But that credit may not happen automatically and you would be wise to check with www.directgov.org.uk to find out what level of Basic State Pension you will be entitled to when you retire.
That has opened the way to restoring the earnings link to the basic state pension, another no-go area for the chancellor, but an indispensable reform if means-testing is to be arrested and saving encouraged.
For some reason people associate the word 'basic' with 'universal' and assume that everyone is entitled to the full-rate basic state pension when they achieve whatever retirement age is relevant for them to be entitled to payment.
These included increasing the basic state pension in line with earnings, basing eligibility for the state pension on residency, introducing a universal pension for the over-75s and creating a National Pensions Saving Scheme with compulsory employer contributions.
Still, there has always been enough of a Tory radical about Mr Major to prevent his administration becoming a no-change government, a trait illustrated by its breathtaking decision this month to propose the privatisation of the basic state pension.
As part of this change, derived entitlement to the basic state pension - where someone receives a married person's pension or a widow's or widower's pension based not on their own working life but the National Insurance record of their spouse or civil partner - will also go.
If the state pension were broadly sufficient to meet pensioners' basic needs, the pension credit introduced by Gordon Brown to help the poorest among them would wither on the vine.
Currently, everybody earning more than a basic income is legally required to make modest payments either towards the State Earnings-Related Pension Scheme or into a private pension.
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