Are the pension changes unfair to women?

I WAS born in August 1954 and am among the hardest hit by the change in women’s retirement age. I’ve worked since I was 15 and fully expected my state pension at 60. We weren’t told about the first age hike to 62, but it leaked out. The 2011 changes were railroaded through and again those affected weren’t consulted. With many of my peers, I’m forced to stay working when employers don’t really want elderly staff. We’re potentially blocking jobs for younger people while juggling the demands of having parents in their 80s and trying to support our own children and grandchildren. What has occurred is totally unfair: the idea of a phased approach must be reviewed. The old practice of stopping National Insurance contributions once you’d paid in for 40 years has also been revoked. The foreign aid budget is massive: let’s look after our own people first.

CHRISTINE FORBES, Liverpool. MY huSBANd and I have been hit with a double whammy by the new pension legislation. he reached 65 in September and as such isn’t eligible for the new state pension. My birth-date is the end of April 1953, and my pension date has been moved to July 2016, when I will be over 63. however, I will not be entitled to the additional state pension I believed I had accrued. I anticipate that, as a couple, we have probably lost about £80 a week.

Mrs SANDRA BATES, Salisbury. BARONESS BAKEWELL’S call for women to be compensated for the pension changes doesn’t take account of the facts. The Pensions Act of 1995 gave notice that the age for women to claim state pension was to rise, in steps, to 65. It began five years after the Act and the rises are ongoing, ten years after the effects of the Act began. The changes apply to women born before February 1953 — that is, over 62. The increase in age for women will continue until November 2018 when it will reach 65, the same as for men. Between five and 23 years is surely long enough notice to plan for retirement. If any gender ought to be seeking compensation, it should be men.

BERNARD BOND, Gillingham, Dorset.