Catalogue description Department of Health and Social Security and predecessors: Retirement Pensions: Case Papers

Retirement pensions (as part of the National Insurance scheme) were introduced on 5 July 1946 under the National Insurance Act 1946. They are payable to people who had retired from regular employment on reaching the minimum pensionable age (65 for men, 60 for women). Retirement did not mean giving up work altogether, but it was required that a pensioner's net earnings did not exceed a specified amount, the value of which changed from time to time. All men over 70 years of age and all women over 65 were treated as having retired.

A minimum number of weekly National Insurance contributions were necessary for qualification for a retirement pension. The amount to be paid was determined from the contribution record. A person who defered retirement until after minimum pensionable age received a higher pension. There were variations in details of procedure and amounts of money contributed or paid out.

About eleven thousand claims for retirement pensions were received each week. Claims were made to local offices or, for people living in London, to the London Pensions Group in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Here new claims were checked, and rates of pension determined from the claimants' contribution records held by the National Insurance Computer Services Division. Claim papers, held in the case files, were entered on a computer pensions files and arrangements were made for regular payment. Case files were destroyed after 13 months, although record sheets showing essential particulars were kept.