Women could retire at 64

A Labour government would allow many women hit by the increase in the state pension age to retire at 64 – but they would have to accept a lower pension.

The party set out plans to help so-called WASPI women born in the 1950s.

It follows a campaign led by MPs including Easington MP Grahame Morris, Newcastle North MP Catherine McKinnell and Laura Pidcock, for North West Durham.

But some of the women affected criticised the announcement, made at Labour’s annual conference in Brighton, because it would force them to accept a lower pension in return for getting it earlier.

The women will have their entitlement reduced by 6% for each early retirement year, up to a maximum of 12%.

WASPI Director Jane Cowley said the group was “disappointed and concerned”, adding: “This morning it was reported that the proposal due to be announced would only apply to some WASPI women. This is no better than the actuarial reduced pension suggested some time ago and rejected by the WASPI Campaign because it pushes women into pensioner poverty.”

They have been hit by laws which equalised the pension age for men and women, ending the old system in which women returned at 60 and men at 65. It meant everyone now receives their pension at the age of 65, and this will rise to 66 by 2020.

But critics say many women born in the 1950s were not made aware of the changes in time to plan ahead, and now face years of retirement without their pension.

Campaigners calling themselves Women Against State Pension Inequality, or WASPI for short, have urged the government to think again.

And Debbie Abrahams MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said a Labour government would allow women who currently have to wait until the age of 66 for their pension to receive it at 64. But this would be funded by offering them a lower pension. Ms Abrahams said: “This will ensure that those who have suffered the consequences of this government’s chaotic mismanagement of the state pension age have the security they need.”