Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will carry out an assessment of the effect on women in Midlothian constituency of changes to the state pension age for women born in the 1950s.

The Department has no plans to carry out such an assessment.

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.

The number of older women (50-64) in work is at a record high, and the most current average age of exit from the labour market for women is 63.6 – well above the previous women’s State Pension age of 60.