Government delays state pension rise to help women

Coalition plans to raise the state pension age to 66 in 2020 will be delayed by six months to address concerns thousands of women will be unfairly disadvantaged.

The Pensions Bill proposed to equalise men's and women's state pension age at 65 in November 2018, and then raise it to 66 by April 2020. This was 6 years earlier than planned, which Age UK thought didn't leave those affected with enough time to plan for their financial futures.

Those hit hardest were 330,000 women born between December 1953 and October 1954, who would have had to wait between 18 months and two years longer to claim their state pensions.

Six month respite

After months of campaigning from Age UK, today the Government has announced it's going to amend the Bill to cap the extra time anyone will have to wait for their state pension to 18 months, delaying the second rise in the pension age for men and women from April to October 2020.

Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director of Age UK, commented: ‘We welcome the changes that have been made, they have listened to our concerns and we appreciate that it is a significant financial commitment from the Government at a difficult time. This will give a much needed 6-month respite to all the women who would have had to work an extra 2 years.

‘We would have liked the changes being made to have gone further. Having faced uncertainty twice already, these women must not be affected by any further changes to their state pension age again without sufficient notice.

‘All of us at Age UK would like to thank the thousands of women that have helped our campaign.’

The move will cost the Government £1 billion in lost cuts to expenditure.