Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what they are doing to ensure that pension rights for women are equal to those for men, with particular reference to those women born in the 1950s and affected by the changes to the state pension under the Pensions Act 1995 and Pensions Act 2011.

Women retiring today can still expect to receive the State Pension for 23.5 years on average – almost three years longer than men. Even after equalising women’s State Pension age (SPa) with men’s, women will spend on average around 2 years more in receipt of their State Pension (SP) because of their longer life expectancy.

The new State Pension is actually much more generous for many women, who have been historically worse off under the old system. By 2030, over 3m women stand to gain an average of £550 extra per year as a result of these changes. If SPa had not been equalised, women would spend on average over 40% of their adult life in retirement.