Pension inequality

Well done to Kay Clarke (letters) for highlighting the injustice of increasing the state pension age for women born in the early Fifties.

Some of us have had our pension qualification age changed twice with little or no notice. In my case I will have worked and paid full national Insurance contributions for 50 years by the time I receive my pension at the age of 65 and 11 months.

Friends and colleagues who are only 12 to 14 months older already receive their pension, and those who are still working in that age group do not pay nI contributions at all. It is very unfair

Linda Brown, address supplied. The Government raised women’s pension age to 66 or 67, but put in place no plans at all for continued employment for this age group.

Ageism is still rife, and few employers want to employ anyone over 60 no matter how qualified and experienced we are. So how are we to continue working, often after forced redundancy when no one will employ us?

A government minister said publicly we should go on Job Seeker’s Allowance, but that’s anathema to proud women who have worked for 40 years or more.

Additionally, many of us are divorced and have no partner’s income to help, and our divorce settlements were based on the assumption we would receive our state pensions at 60.

Transitional arrangements must be put in place for us, and the Government should make plans enabling those of us who are still able to work to gain employment — and not just zero-hours contracts in lowskilled and low-paid jobs, which are often all that is available to us. CLaire MapLethorpe,

Bridgnorth, Shrops. I WAS born in 1954 and fully expected to receive my state pension in 2014. So I was horrified to receive a letter from the dWP in February 2012 informing me that I would not receive it until January 2020.

This has been a financial disaster for me as I calculate by then I will have lost more than £42,000. Why the department for Work and Pensions waited 17 years to inform me of the changes I do not know.

It says we should have asked for regular pension forecasts, but surely the onus was on it to keep us up to date on pension changes?

Thousands of women now face a very bleak future. Many are forced to spend savings that were meant to ensure a comfortable old age, And many are forced to apply for benefits for the first time in their lives.

I’m sure we all agree that women’s pension age must be equalised with men, but to do it in such a harsh way as to penalise women is heartless and ill-thought through.

Judi Bywater, address supplied.