The UK Government has today rejected calls to aid women affected by an accelerated increase to the state pension age, meaning some women are set to miss out on on estimated £45,000 in pension payments.
The announcement follows an Opposition Day Debate on the state pension age, where opponents of the changes called for compensation to be paid to those affected.
MPs argued that women were not given sufficient warning and highlighted comments made by the renowned expert on life expectancy, Professor Sir Michael Marmot, who warned that improvements in life expectancy over the last century are “pretty close to having ground to a halt”.
In a statement to Parliament, the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Guy Opperman MP, said: “The decision to equalise the state pension age for men and women dates back to 1995 and addresses a long-standing inequality between men and women’s state pension age.
“This change was part of a wider social trend towards gender equality, but was also a decision, partly as a result of European and equality legal cases, relating to occupational pension provision.
“During the Blair and Brown years, the then Government decided that a state pension age fixed at 65 was no longer affordable or sustainable. The Pensions Act 2007 introduced an increase in state pension age to ages 66, 67 and 68.
“The coalition Government brought in further changes under the Pensions Act 2011, which accelerated the equalisation of women’s state pension age and brought forward the increase in men and women’s state pension age to 66 by 2020.
Source: Tories reject calls to aid women hit by state pension age increase : Welfare Weekly
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