Women affected by the controversial state pension age increases should be entitled to access Pension Credit as compensation for the financial hardship they are facing, cross-party MPs have said. Labour’s Carolyn Harris and Tim Loughton, a Conservative MP, said they would not rest until we get justice for all women affected by these changes. It comes after two women who took the Government to court over the changes, which have increased women’s state pension age from 60 to 65, lost their landmark legal fight. About 3.8 million women born in the 1950s have been affected by increases to the state pension age, which are aimed at equalising it with that of men’s.
The retirement age will move to 66 for both sexes by 2020, ahead of further increases in the coming decades. The women claim they were not given adequate notice of the changes to prepare for extra years without their pension – although the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) maintains they were “clearly communicated”. The situation, the women say, has left them financially struggling in their early sixties, or having to work far longer than expected.
