Gavin blasts pension ‘trap’
A politician has condemned a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) as“grim reading”, saying that it confirms the rise in the state pension age for women has hurt more than one million women.
Gavin Newlands, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, said the report confirms fears of the SNP that the way the UK Government has handled the pension-age equalisation process has had a disproportionate effect on low income households.
He says it has seriously hit women in the age group 60 to 62, and has given the Treasury a £5billion windfall.
Mr Newlands said:“This report makes for grim reading.
“It confirms what the SNP have always said that — as always — the Tories just don’t care about those on lowest incomes, and, in particular, this group of women, who have been negatively been affected by the UK Government’s constant changing of the goal posts to the state pension.
“The figures show quite clearly that, with the change in the state pension age for women from 60 to 63, more than one million fewer women are in receipt of it — and at the same time the UK Government has been able to chop a whopping £4billion off the budget.
“It is a Tory trap — and it has placed more women between 60 and 62 into an impoverished state.
“The idea of equalising pensions ages is widely accepted, but this is about the implementation and handling of it, and, as this IFS research shows, the Tories have devised a way to get billions more into the Chancellor’s coffers by hitting this group hard.
“This is an issue of equality and fairness.
“The UK Government must take responsibility and do the right thing for these women.
“The Prime Minister must listen and end this complete unfairness, which is doing so much damage.”