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1950s' women face 'financial hardships', as state pension age rises to 66, says Unite

13 October 2011

The announcement that the state pension age will rise to 66 in 2020 still contains 'very real financial dangers' for women born in the 1950s.

Unite, the largest union in the country, is concerned about the financial impact for this group of women, many in low-paid and demanding jobs, who will now have to work an extra 18 months for their state pension, instead of the previous proposal of two years.

Unite assistant general secretary, Gail Cartmail said: 'This announcement must not be allowed to mask the injustice of the government's plans to create an automatic link to the state pension age and the normal retirement age for women who are members of public sector pension schemes.'

'Apart from being unfair and disregarding the nature of the work done, such a link creates a precedent that may well leak into private sector schemes. This would be in the same way that some private sector schemes are being hit with the 15% reduced value of benefits due to the switch from Retail Price Index (RPI) to Consumer Price Index (CPI) which was imposed on all public sector schemes.'

'There are still not-so-hidden financial dangers for this group of women, thought to number about 330,000, now in their late fifties. Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith has given them a crumb of comfort today.'

The Pensions Bill currently going through Parliament proposed that the state pension age for women would reach 65 by November 2018 and rise to 66 for both men and women by April 2020. Instead the changes announced today will propose that men and women reach 66 by October 2020.

The government's public sector pension changes will also hit women workers hard as they are the lowest earners and make up the majority of the public service workforce.



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