Women and the State Pension Age

I was absolutely delighted to be contacted by a local resident and member of WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) asking whether I would give my support to their campaign. Of course I was, I said - I really do share their concerns about the women who are impacted by changes to the state pension age.

In the letters I've received, campaigners pointed out that some of the changes made to the Pensions Act in 2011 (whilst the Lib Dems were in coalition) meant that the equalisation of the State Pension Age has been accelerated.

This means that women born in 1953 -4 will be affected by the increase in the State Pension Age (SPA) from 65 to 66, and women born between 1954 and 1960 will see an increase in their SPA to 67.

This modest change has saved the public purse tens of billions of pounds. However, during the time when the Liberal Democrats were informing women about the changes, many women discovered that they had not previously been informed about the initial major jump in the State Pension Age from 61 to 65 introduced in the 1995 Pensions Act.

As Martin Lewis, of Money Saving Expert, points out, "[t]he issue here isn't just 'how much', but more that if you're going to change the provisions and finance available to someone for the rest of their life, then it's only fair to give them decent due notice so they can organise their affairs accordingly".

Whilst the Lib Dems were in Government, we worked hard to alleviate the impact of the equalisation by introducing £2bn worth of changes that meant for most women no more than 12 months was added to their State Pension Age (SPA), with an absolute maximum of 18 months.

Moreover,the Liberal Democrats strongly support reform within the Department of Work and Pensions to ensure that such an oversight can be never be repeated. The lack of information provided to women in 1995 about the changes to their State Pension Age is extremely disappointing, and the Government should ensure that everyone is informed about any future changes regarding the status of their pensions well in advance so that they have the opportunity to plan for a secure future.

I'm happy to have given my support to the pledge and if elected on June 8th I will be happy to work with colleagues towards fair transition arrangements for the women impacted.