Yet another blow for women on pensions

OLDER women in Britain grew up with the post-war state and private pension systems that assumed most women would rely on their husband’s pension in later life.

Married women paid lower National Insurance contributions, and some employer pension schemes did not allow married women to participate.

But with the lowest state pension in the developed world, British women need every penny.

And that’s why these latest revelations are particularly disturbing.

How many married, widowed and divorced women have been short-changed? We don’t know — and, apparently, neither does the DWP.

Women phoning the Department for Work & Pensions because they suspected their payment was too low were reassured the amount they were receiving was correct. But it wasn’t. With such a complex pension system, they could not be sure of all the rules. Of course, errors are bound to occur. But, once discovered, they must be quickly investigated and rectified, with a proper explanation of what went wrong. I hope this will happen as soon as possible.

Pensions aim to help older citizens escape poverty — with the oldest and poorest pensioners being women.

Much more must be done to provide for female pensioners properly, rather than them continually losing out in many different ways.