Women’s State Pension Age Communication: PHSO Report

Alan Gemmell Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

Our commitment to the pension triple lock, which will deliver an increase of £470 in the new state pension from this April and up to £1,900 extra over the course of this Parliament, backed by over £30 billion of investment, is a serious investment in pensioners. We believe that the basic state pension is the foundation for security in retirement. If the Liberal Democrats want to come up with a costed proposal to do what the ombudsman says, they are perfectly at liberty to do so, although we think that that is the wrong approach.

[Alan Gemmell (Central Ayrshire) (Lab)]

As my right hon. Friend has noted, many women will be disappointed by this decision—including women I have met in Central Ayrshire when campaigning, since I have been an MP, and at constituency surgeries as recently as Friday—even though they know that we are cleaning up 14 years of Tory mess, dither and delay and failure. Caring responsibilities often fall on women, and an awful lot of 1950s women have spoken about the financial, emotional and physical pressures that they face in caring for a loved one. Will my right hon. Friend set out how the Government plan to support carers over the coming months and years?

[Liz Kendall]

I have been a lifelong champion of family carers, which is why I have launched an independent review of the overpayment of carers allowance, led by Liz Sayce, and why the Government have introduced the biggest ever increase in the earnings threshold for carer’s allowance. That will make a huge difference in enabling those who look after the people they love to work at the same time. I understand that many women born in the 1950s will be disappointed, but, for all the reasons I have set out, we think this is the fair and right approach. However, we will learn lessons from the maladministration—the delay and the failure to send out letters for 28 months—to ensure that it never happens again.