State Retirement Pensions: Females

(asked on 6th October 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he has taken to achieve equitable transitional state pension arrangements for all women born in the 1950s affected by changes to state pensions introduced buy the Pensions Act 1995 and 2011.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 16th October 2017

The decision to equalise the State Pension age for men and women dates back to 1995 and addresses a longstanding inequality between men and women’s State Pension age. If State Pension ages had not been equalised, women would be spending 40% of their adult life in retirement and this proportion would be continuing to increase.

The 2010-15 Government made the decision to bring in further changes to the State Pension age, following extensive debates in both Houses of Parliament. These changes were introduced in order to protect public finances and maintain the sustainability of the state pension over the long term. Life expectancy at age 65 increased by 5 years for men and almost 4 years for women in the 20 years to 2009. The 2011 Act accelerated the equalisation of women’s State Pension age by 18 months and brought forward the increase in men and women’s State Pension age to 66 by five and a half years, relative to the previous timetables. Failing to act in light of compelling demographic evidence would have been irresponsible and would have placed an unfair fiscal burden on the working population.

A concession was made prior to the passing of the 2011 Act which reduced the delay that anyone would experience in claiming their State Pension, relative to the previous timetable, to 18 months. This concession benefited almost a quarter of a million women, who would otherwise have experienced delays of up to two years. A similar number of men also benefited from a reduced increase, and the concession was worth £1.1 billion in total.

This issue has been debated numerous times and numerous statements have already been made. Introducing further concessions cannot be justified given the imperative to focus public resources on helping those most in need.

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