Pension-age hike hits 2,000 women

More than 2,000 women across Oldham will have their retirement plans wrecked by the pension-age hike following the Government’s refusal to back down.

MPs of all parties have urged ministers to rethink plans to speed up the equalisation of the pension age for women and men amid warnings that hundreds of thousands of women have not had time to plan properly for their retirement.

But the Government insists it is pressing ahead with its plans. It means 2,300 women across Oldham, now aged 56 and 57, have had their retirement plans thrown into chaos by the rise in their pension age to 66 by 2020.

Of those, about 100 born between March 6 and April 5, 1954, will have to work a full two years longer than they expected — losing up to £15,000 during that period, protesters have warned.

As part of the Pensions Bill, the state pension age for women will go up from 60 to 65 in 2018 — two years earlier than planned under Labour — rising to 66 in 2020.

However, the move has provoked intense cross-party opposition, with MPs warning that it discriminates unfairly against women in their late 50s who will now have to wait longer than they had expected to receive their pensions.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams said: “Pensions are another crucial area where this Government have penalised women.

Over the past few weeks, hundreds of women in my constituency have contacted me about the Government’s decision last September to accelerate the equalisation of the state pension age for women to 65 in 2016 instead of 2020.

“We all agree that women are living longer, and that we need to change the state pension age, but the issue is about the time being taken to do so.”

Critics have warned that women already have lower pensions because they have been paid less, taken career breaks to care and many were prevented from saving into private pensions when working part-time.

Across the country, 33,000 women who will have to wait exactly two years longer for their pension — with only five years to plan.

However, the Department for Work and Pensions said that ministers intended to push through the bill as planned.

A spokesman said: “We stand by the 2016-2020 timetable for equalisation and raising the state pension age to 66.

“The bill will go forward without any changes to the timetable. If we delayed the move to 66, it would cost the taxpayer £10billion and would be an unfair burden on the next generation.”