Transitional State Pension Arrangements for Women

Patricia Gibson Excerpts

Monday 1st February 2016 Westminster Hall

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

There seems to be widespread consensus that that acceleration of the equalisation of the state pension age directly discriminates against women born on or after 6 April 1951. We all agree that women have not been given fair notice to prepare and manage their plans and finances for an additional number of years before receiving their state pension. Many women in my constituency are genuinely alarmed and worried about their financial future due to the lack of preparation time that they have had. As has been said—it bears repeating—life expectancy across the UK is not uniform, and that creates complexities when discussing this issue.

It has been hinted at but not explicitly said today that it is a real shame and a real disappointment that that fantastic crusader for people of pension age, Baroness Altmann, has allowed herself to be effectively neutralised by her ennoblement. Many women face the real prospect of cancelling retirement plans after a lifetime of work. That goes against the grain of natural justice, and it demands to be addressed because it is a breach of contract.

A DWP research report in 2004 found that only 43% of the women affected were able to identify their own state pension age as 65 years or between 60 and 65 years. That low figure was identified as a cause for real concern, showing that information about the increase in the state pension age was

“not reaching the group of individuals who arguably have the greatest need to be informed.”

Levels of awareness were even lower among women who were economically inactive or in routine and manual occupations, standing at a mere 36%.

Women born in the 1950s have been affected by significant changes to their state pension age with a lack of appropriate notification, little notice and much faster than promised. That can have only one outcome: straitened financial circumstances for women as they frantically try to prepare and re-plan retirement. With retirement a further four, five or even six years further away than originally thought, it is not just financially challenging; it is cruel and heartless. All of this, as has been said, is in the context of a lifetime of low pay and inequality faced by far too many women and the old-age problems that are a cumulative effect of that.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

My hon. Friend talks about the lack of planning. In the Chamber earlier today, one of the fallback measures suggested by the Minister was that women could use pension freedoms. That shows a lack of understanding that women are less likely to have a private pension that they can cash in, but to suggest they cash it in to help them get by these few years is absolutely irresponsible.

[Patricia Gibson]

Absolutely. I concur with everything that my hon. Friend has said.

Clearly, and despite the lack of action, the Government know there is a problem. Steve Webb, the Pensions Minister in the coalition Government, has admitted that the period of notice being given to some women was “the key issue”. He further went on to indicate that he recognised that not everyone affected by the 1995 Act had been aware of it. The Government must take responsibility for that. Why did they not act in this matter earlier to ensure that the women affected were fully informed? Why were women left in the dark, blissfully unaware that their retirement plans would lie around them in financial ruins?

The excellent campaign run by Women Against State Pension Inequality calling on the Government to make fair transitional state pension arrangements for 1950s-born women is one that we in the SNP fully support in the interests of natural justice. Fairness is all that is being called for here today. I take exception to what the hon. Member for Gloucester said about the cost being £30 billion. I will challenge anyone who makes that case. Is it more worthwhile to fund weapons of mass destruction or to ensure that our people have dignity as they approach pension age? The Government have not listened to our calls so far. They have avoided and obfuscated.

[Simon Hoare]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Patricia Gibson]

I will not, as I am in my final seconds.

The Government have not listened or responded, despite the huge outpouring of public feeling, not only from the women affected but from a society that knows that this is unjust. I urge them to respond to our calls now.

[Mr David Hanson (in the Chair)]

Order. I cannot stop interventions, but they add minutes and reduce the time available to fit in everyone who is down to speak. I ask Members to reflect on that when they intervene.

State Pension Age (Women)

Patricia Gibson Excerpts

Thursday 7th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Deidre Brock]

The hon. Lady makes an excellent point.

We are talking about people who were forced to accept being passed over for promotion. Some of them are still fighting for compensation for unequal pay. These people were given scant consideration when pregnancy and motherhood forced them to take time away from the workplace. Surely they deserve a little more consideration from the Government than they have been given so far. It gets more and more difficult for people to pick themselves up and get back into the workplace with the same enthusiasm as they did before if they feel that they are kicked back at every turn.

I accept that Baroness Altmann has a track record of campaigning for justice in this field, as has been mentioned. I certainly welcome the fact that we have someone with such a track record as Pensions Minister, but she appears to be a lonely figure in this Government. The pressure that is being applied by the Chancellor and the Prime Minister to drive down public spending means that she can do little on her own. The strange worship of the austerity idol, as I call it, constrains any attempt by any spending Department to deliver anything that might look like fairness or help for the poor and disadvantaged.

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that, given that the Minister in the coalition Government, Steve Webb, indicated that he was aware that not everyone who was affected by the changes was aware of them, the Government must take responsibility for that? Questions must be asked about why women were not more fully informed by the Government and were left in the dark for so long.

[Deidre Brock]

Absolutely; I agree with my hon. Friend and look forward to the Minister addressing those points when he speaks.

With the Government’s assault on benefits in full flight, we should remember that pensions and pensioners account for the largest share of benefit spending in the UK and that the Chancellor’s gimlet eye will turn inexorably towards pension provision when the other stones have been bled dry.

I do not think that any working woman is asking for special treatment on her pension. I certainly do not think that any of the many women who have contacted their MPs with concerns over these changes is a shirker or a scrounger. They simply want a bit of fairness and a sound knowledge of what the future is likely to bring. Women who started their working lives under one set of pension rules look like they may finish their working lives under their third set of pension rules, provided that there are no further changes down the line.

Providing these women with as much certainty as can be mustered and making sure that they will not lose out financially have to be the watchwords for the Government over these changes. As has been suggested, a gentle transition would be far more in keeping with the need to ensure that we do not exacerbate pensioner poverty or drive more of the most vulnerable members of society into poverty. I urge the Government and the Minister to keep that in mind.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gavin Newlands]

I could not agree more. I have received an email in the past hour from a constituent who turned 60 in March and was not aware of the changes and is coming to meet me tomorrow at a surgery. The problem is still going on.

My shorter contribution to the debate will centre on fairness. I believe that it is fair that both sexes will receive their state pension at the same age, but the rapid rise in the age of eligibility for the state pension has been unfair for hard-working men and women who have paid into a system all their lives in good faith.

[Patricia Gibson]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the changes to the state pension mean that women are finding out that retirement is four, five and six years further away than they thought and that that not only leads to financial difficulties but is cruel and heartless? It happens in the context of a lifetime of low pay and inequality faced by far too many women.

[Gavin Newlands]

I am pleased my hon. Friend has made that point for me. Given the time limit, I had to delete that section of my speech.

Hard-working men and women have paid into the system expecting, in good faith, the state to help to support their retirement. The combination of equalisation and increasing the pension age has been devastating for some women.

As I have said, WASPI has no problems with the principle of the policy; rather, it has problems with its implementation. These rapid and rushed changes have had a significant impact on a large group of women: 2.6 million women, if we accept the Department for Work and Pensions estimates. The changes have meant that some women may have to wait an additional six years to receive a state pension. From the first day of their working lives, these women have been advised to plan accordingly. At the very last minute, the Government have altered the plans that these women have had for years. This, in essence, is why the women affected feel deeply aggrieved and betrayed by the actions of subsequent Governments.

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in answer to my written question on the communication of the changes to the pension age entitlement, replied that the DWP wrote to all individuals directly affected to inform them of the changes to their state pension age. However, from speaking to WASPI and local constituents this does not appear to have happened on the scale or to the degree that the Secretary of State indicated. I have spoken with women affected. They have said they received the DWP letter far too late, with only a few months’ notice of the increase in the pension age. I have also heard of letters sent to wrong addresses. In one case, unfortunately, a constituent who came to my surgery—another is coming in tomorrow—had no knowledge whatever of the changes.

It has come to light that the UK Government informed a large number of women affected only 14 years after the changes were made.