Transitional State Pension Arrangements for Women

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh Excerpts

Monday 1st February 2016 Westminster Hall

[Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Ochil and South Perthshire) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hanson. May I start by saying that we should dispense with the use of the word “emotions”? We have heard it only from Government Members in this debate. We should talk about the facts.

The Government’s record on issues relating to women is at best lamentable and at worst fundamentally discriminatory. From changes to tax credits and child benefit to the current pensions issue, the Government’s policies have adversely impacted on women across the United Kingdom. House of Commons Library research shows that the measures announced in last year’s Budget will have an disproportionate impact on women, and individual proposals, such as the Chancellor’s “rape clause”, which would require a woman who has her third child as a result of rape to justify her position in order to avoid losing tax credits, are horrifying in their callous disregard for human rights. The matter before us is important because in that wider context, it presents the Government with an opportunity to now do the right thing by the women of this country and, indeed, by the WASPI campaign.

The Government have rightly recognised that when it comes to changes that affect people’s pensions, they need to take a more measured approach in future and ensure both effective communication and a reasonable lead-in period, so that those who are affected can properly plan for retirement. The Government should therefore now take their own advice in that respect and act properly and fairly for all the thousands of women who have been adversely affected by the equalisation of the pension age and the subsequent decisions taken in the 2011 Act.

Most of all, this is an issue of fairness. As someone who has argued all their life for equality for women, I absolutely agree with the principles behind the 1995 Act; those are not in dispute. I support equalisation of the pension age, but I have enormous sympathy—we all should—for those who may not have been aware of these changes and are suffering hardship as a result. I cannot support the unfair manner in which these changes were imposed under the 2011 Act to the detriment of so many women in Clackmannanshire, Perthshire and Kinross-shire and across the rest of the country. They believed they had a deal, an agreement and even an understanding with the state, and the state has moved the goalposts. This is a failure in the Government’s policy and a fundamental breach of contract, and the Government must take responsibility for that and bring forward transitional protection now.

I know that the Government are capable of making sensible and reasonable decisions in this area. That is why I wholeheartedly welcome the fact that under the Pensions Act 2014, future reviews of the state pension should give 10 years’ notice of such changes. The same principle should be applied to right the wrongs of the changes made in 2011. We know that some of those impacted by the 2011 changes received only around five years’ notice of the changes that would impact them, while those with the largest increases of 18 months got less than eight years’ notice. I am sure we have all heard from constituents explaining, often with heartbreaking detail, how that has meant they were given insufficient time to prepare for their retirement. One constituent of mine said:

“At present I will not get my pension until I am 66 with no warning. I will suffer true hardship and misery.”

The system has let that woman and thousands like her down, and the Government must act now to make amends.

Pensions are not a benefit; they are part of our social contract, and this Government have broken that contract. I understand—we all understand—that what we seek today costs money, but the Government have a duty to do the right thing, not the cheap thing, when it comes to changing this sort of contract. Our duty must be to do what is right and to then take the difficult decisions necessary to pay for it. We should not start with the cost and work back from there.

Politics is about decisions and priorities. I am here because I believe that getting a fair deal for these women should be a priority. To take another path would be to demonstrate to the thousands of women watching today that this Government know the price of everything and the value of nothing.