Retirement age change meant me later having to live off food parcels
WOMEN HIT BY FINANCIAL LOSS AND DISTRESS
A WOMAN said she was forced to live off food parcels after she was told her pension age had been raised.
May Low, from Burton, found out two days before her 60th birthday that she would have to wait another six years before receiving her pension.
In 1995 the Government introduced a gradual increase of the state pension age from 60 to 65 for women but did not notify them. A change in 2011 accelerated the rise to 65 and increased it to 66 for both men and women by 2020.
Some women were written to in 2009, 14 years after the first change, but letters then stopped until 2011. Many women received no notice at all. Those who did get letters had very little time to prepare for such a major change to their retirement plans.
A total of 4,250 women in Burton and Uttoxeter are affected by this decision. One of these women was Mrs Low, who then joined WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) to campaign to achieve fair transitional state pension arrangements and recompense for all women born in the 1950s affected by the changes to the state pension law.
They want the retirement age to remain at 60 for women.
She spoke out after the Parliamentary & Health Service
Ombudsman (PHSO) announced on July 20 that it “has found failings in the way the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) communicated changes to women’s state pension age”.
The Ombudsman received a significant number of complaints about the way this was communicated by DWP. Many women said that they were not aware of the changes, and experienced significant financial loss and emotional distress as a result.
PHSO has found that from 2005 onward, there were failings in the action taken by DWP to communicate the state pension age.
Mrs Low said: “I found out two days before my 60th birthday I would have to wait another six years before rightfully getting what I worked hard for 45 years of my life. I started campaigning for 1950 women. My health was not good and failing by the day, but yet the Government expected me to wait for my pension.
“Life was a struggle but I was one of the lucky ones to have a husband who supported me, but our savings were dwindling faster than anything.
“Sadly, my husband passed in
October 2019, then I truly felt the devastation of the 1950 women injustice. I had to rely on food parcels and friends. Was this fair? No it wasn’t. I worked all my life and this is how the Government treat not just me but 3.8 million women. Wrong on so many levels.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “Both the High Court and Court of Appeal have supported the actions of the DWP, under successive governments dating back to 1995, and the Supreme Court refused the claimants permission to appeal.
“In a move towards gender equality, it was decided more than 25 years ago to make the state pension age the same for men and women.”
Mrs Low added WASPI were now calling on Burton MP Kate Griffiths to press for a cross-party solution.
Ms Griffiths said: “I have already written to the Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions on behalf of all the women in the Burton WASPI Group as a result of the ruling and will continue to engage with the group as we await a response from the Minister.”
I worked all my life and this is how the Government treat not just me but 3.8 million women. May Low