Widdecombe hits out at ‘self-indulgent’ women’s pensions campaigner
ANN WIDDECOMBE has labelled a women’s pension campaigner “self-indulgent and entitled” after she was criticised for changes she made to the retirement age for women.
The former Conservative MP clashed with Women Against State Pension Inequality member Eve Wignall in a BBC programme to be shown today. The make-up artist, 60, said it was unfair she will have to work until at least 2023 to access her pension instead of being able to retire this year.
She accused the Government of a “cash grab of older people’s money”.
“You get towards 60 and you know you’re not going to retire but you know you can’t do what you’ve always done,” she said.
“It’s an exhausting, frightening trap you’re suddenly in. We didn’t know these plans weren’t going to work out.”
Widdecombe, 71, who began the process of equalising pension ages for men and women while Pensions Secretary, hit back at the suggestion thousands of women were unaware of the changes which take effect from this year. She said: “We sent out five million darn letters. How do you think the state is going to afford, year in, year out, for us to retire five years younger than all the rest of the world is retiring?”
She added: “I’m sorry I’m going to be blunt here – it is unreasonable, self-indulgent and entitled to think that you can retire at the same age with a much longer life expectancy at the state’s expense.”
The exchange is in the BBC Inside Out South West show to air at 7.30pm tonight. It will be available on iPlayer afterwards.