Ros Altmann
A campaign is launched today to overturn government plans which will see half a million women being denied access to their state pension for up to two years, leaving many of them tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Tomorrow the House of Lords will debate the latest stage of the controversial Pensions Bill.
Campaigners say that whilst the equalisation of the pension age for men and women is fair, accelerating the timescale for its introduction is not.
The revised programme disproportionately affects women, many of whom have already had to change their retirement plans once to accommodate increased pension age from 60 to 64.
Today Saga, which fights for the rights of the over 50’s, is demanding that the government thinks again and delays the increase in pension age to give women a chance to prepare themselves.
Saga wants the millions of people who are either affected personally, or that know somebody who is impacted and all of those that just recognise the unfairness in these proposals, to write to or to visit their MPs to gain their support.
Individuals should also sign up to Saga’s petition in an attempt to get the chancellor to change his plans.
The anger is down to a surprise announcement by George Osborne in his autumn budget statement last year that the timetable for changes to the pension age for women would increase from 2016 to reach 66 by the year 2020. The Coalition Agreement promised that no change would happen before 2020.
This means that between 2010 and 2020, women's pension age will increase by six years, while men's pension age will be raised by just one year. These new extra increases for women start from 2016, but for men the one year increase only starts from 2018.
It’s estimated that half a million women will have to work longer than they had planned to and will struggle to find the money to make up for the lost pensions.
A recent Saga survey of over 13,500 men and women by Saga shows that three quarters feel the change in women’s pension age as proposed is not the right way to proceed.
Saga on behalf of the nation’s over 50s population is calling on the government to rethink its plans and ideally to delay the increase in women’s pension age until 2020 which will allow women more time to prepare.
In our podcast, Dr. Ros Altmann, Director General of Saga discusses how you can get involved in this campaign.