State pension changes: we answer your questions I delayed taking my state pension beyond age 65 and opted for an enhanced pension which I now receive at the rate of £149 a week. Will this continue to increase in line with inflation once the new scheme is introduced in 2016? Your basic state pension, including any extra derived from your delaying claiming, is covered by the so-called triple lock - that is to say it increases in line with the best of the annual rise in average earnings, prices as measured by the consumer prices index (CPI) or 2.5pc. Any additional pension you may have from the state second pension (S2P, formerly Serps) or the even older graduated retirement benefit scheme will increase in line with the CPI only. Will there still be an option to delay claiming your state pension in order to receive a bigger pension once the single tier starts in 2016? Yes - but on somewhat less generous terms than now. Instead of receiving an increase in the pension rate of 1pc for every five weeks of deferment, it will be 1pc for every 10 weeks. The right to opt for a cash lump sum for delaying for a year or more will also be abolished for new pensioners after April 2016. Will those people reaching state pension age after April 2016 who would have received more pension in total under the previous arrangements (from a combination of the basic state pension and S2P/Serps) be limited to the flat-rate pension? No - they will receive the higher figure. They will get the full level of the single-tier pension plus a "protected payment" on top to make up the difference. I am past state pension age and in receipt of my pension. My wife is six years younger than me and reaches her state pension age on March 6 2017. She has only four NI qualifying years in her own right from way back and was counting on receiving a 60pc spouse's pension based on my contribution record, which it now seems unlikely she can claim under the single-tier rules. Is there anything we can do to get her a pension? Had the Government not decided to bring forward the start date of the single tier by one year from April 6 2017 to April 6 2016, your wife would have been able to claim the 60pc pension. As it is, she now appears to have been caught out by the removal of the general right to claim a pension based on a spouse's NI record by a new pensioner under single-tier. So, unless or until the final version of the transitional rules grants you some leeway, the ability to obtain a pension by that route will remain closed. The only other possibility is to contemplate buying six or more years of voluntary NI contributions to bring her record up to the expected minimum of 10 years needed to receive at least a partial pension. It might be preferable deferring a final decision on this until after the Bill becomes law and closer to the date when your wife is due to claim her state pension. What is happening to the means-tested top-up, Pension Credit, after April 2016? There are currently two parts to the Pension Credit - a minimum income guarantee credit and a savings credit. The savings credit element will no longer be available for new claimants once the changes are introduced in 2016 but the guarantee credit will remain as a last resort for those who need it. It is the intention to pitch the full-rate single-tier pension at least marginally above that of the guarantee credit - on current prices £145 and £145.70 a week respectively - so as to avoid overlaps with means-tested benefits and thus encouragement for private saving on top. Are all the proposals in the Pensions Bill "written in stone" or can we expect further changes before it is all finally implemented? It is probably inevitable that the Bill will be subject to a number of changes in the detail as it passes through the various parliamentary stages. I would expect, for example, the limited transitional arrangements for preserving and protecting prospective pension rights for married women, widows/widowers and divorcees to come under particular scrutiny at the committee stage in the House of Commons. This is a major and in many respects a revolutionary Bill which appears to command widespread support but in its entirety will not satisfy everybody.