MP Urges Government to Act as Time Runs Out on Womens Pensions

Peter Hain MP has called on the Government to act fast to protect the 1,000 women in the Neath constituency hit by plans to accelerate the state pension age increase – before it is too late.

Despite thousands of people signing a petition, a mass lobby of Parliament, thousands of emails, and a series of questions to the Prime Minister, the Government have not delivered on their promise to produce plans for ‘transitional arrangements’ to ease the burden for those most affected.

Mr Hain said “This is yet another callous attack from the Tory Government targeting women, many of whom have juggled working lives with raising a family, and who have very little retirement saving to fall back on. The lack of warning of these changes means they do not have enough time to adjust carefully thought-out retirement plans.

“To be given hope of ‘transitional arrangement’ in June and to still have these decisions hanging in the air is making for a stressful and worrying summer. These women do not have the luxury of time to alter their arrangement they need to know what is ahead of them to in order to change their plans.”

The Government’s plans to accelerate the state pension age increases mean that 500,000 women will have to wait for more than a year longer before receiving the state pension, leaving many women aged 56 and 57 robbed of their pensions.

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 will have to wait an extra 2 years, before being entitled to their state pension.

The majority of these women will already be well underway in their plans for retirement, with many already working reduced hours in order to care for grandchildren or elderly parents. Yet they are now being forced to make significant changes to their financial plans, with just 5 years notice before the changes kick in.

The unlucky 33,000 born between 6 March 1954 and 5 April 1954 are set to lose around £10,000 in lost state pension, with less than 7 years to attempt to accommodate the change.