Last week, Emma spoke in the Effect of the equalisation of the state pension age on women debate. The debate was called in response to calls for the Government to introduce transitional measures to protect women who were born in the 1950s whose pension age was accelerated by the Coalition Government to such a degree that many women were left struggling to make ends meet after their financial plans were thrown into disarray.
The Pensions Act 1995 provided for the State Pension age (SPA) for women to increase from 60 to 65 over the period April 2010 to 2020. The Coalition Government legislated in the Pensions Act 2011 to accelerate the latter part of this timetable. Some women born in the 1950s have been hit particularly hard by these changes, with significant changes to their State Pension age imposed without an appropriate notification period.
What is worse is that millions of women affected were never told of these changes forcing some of them into selling their family homes, using all of their savings if they had any or having to re-enter the employment market to ensure they can survive until they receive their state pensions.
This debate was brought about by the campaigning work of the Women Against State Pension Inequality group who have done an outstanding job in raising awareness of this issue. There is also a petition which has to date received 119, 056 signatures. You can sign the petition here and read Emma’s speech here.
At the end of the debate, the Minister responded with platitudes about the equalisation of the state pension age being important, but he refused to confirm that the Government would put in place any extra measures to help those in need.
The House voted 158 to 0 in favour of the motion calling for transitional support for these women.
Speaking after the debate Emma said:
“It is outrageous that the Government are steadfastly refusing to create transitional measures to make things easier for millions of women. The accelerating of the pension age is nothing more than a money grab by the Chancellor robbing women born in the 1950s of £30 billion. The Government need to understand this issue will not go away, they need to come up with a solution now”.