Tories stick to pensions plan
THE government will stick to its plans to raise the state pension age for women despite growing opposition, secretary of state Iain Duncan Smith insisted last night.
Duncan Smith has “no plans” to make changes to the policy that will see the pension age for women rise to 65 by 2018, bringing it in line with men, then increase to 66 by 2020.
Opposition to the plans grew in Westminster yesterday, with several MPs throwing their weight behind efforts to amend the bill.
The scheme risks penalising a specific group of women who were born around 1953 and 1954, coalition backbenchers Jenny Willott (Liberal Democrat) and James Gray (Conservative) said in parliament yesterday.
More than 20 Liberal Democrat MPs had already signed parliamentary motions opposing the proposal, ahead of yesterday’s second reading.
In later readings, MPs will have the chance to vote against specific parts of the bill, raising the chance of dissent among the government’s benches. The bill is also set to face strong opposition from the House of Lords.
Around half a million women will face an increase in their expected pension age of more than a year, critics said, while men have not faced an increase of more than a year.
“It is simply wrong to punish women by moving the goal posts at this late stage,” said Labour’s shadow pensions minister Rachel Reeves.
Labour estimated that 300,000 women born between 6 December 1953 and 5 October 1954 would have to wait a further 18 months for the state pension.
Labour has said it would delay hiking the state pension age until 2020, to “give people the time they need to prepare.”
The rise in the pension age would then have to come even faster than in the coalition’s plans, Labour conceded.
Most women would like to retire at 61 years and four months of age, according to a survey released yesterday by Scottish Widows. Yet over half do not think they are financial prepared for retirement, the report said.