A Thousand Neath Women To Be Hit By Changes To The State Pension

Hundreds of thousands of women across the UK born between 1953 and 1954 will be dramatically affected by changes to the state pension age which could see them have to wait an extra two years before they can receive it. Government plans to accelerate the equalisation of state pension age will affect a thousand women in the Neath constituency, figures from the House of Commons Library suggest.

Neath MP Peter Hain has called the proposals a “travesty” as women who have worked hard all their lives and planned for retirement in the next few years are forced to adapt their plans with insufficient time to prepare.

Mr Hain said, “These plans are unfair and target women who are coming to the end of their working lives. They have planned for retirement and now those plans are dramatically affected as they face a longer wait to access their state pension, leaving them feeling they have been robbed.”

Across the UK 300,000 women born between 6 December 1953 and 5 October 1954, will have to wait an extra 18 months, and an unlucky 33,000 born between 6 March 1954 and 5 April 1954 will have to wait an extra 2 years, before being entitled to their state pension.