On the go: Lancashire County Council was urged to explore providing women affected by equalisation with concessionary travel on Thursday, as campaigners await the High Court’s judicial review of the government’s policy.
Retirement age equalisation has been criticised as “unjust” and responsible for plunging women born in the 1950s into poverty by some campaigners, who claim that government communications about remaining in the workplace were insufficient.
Lancashire joins other local authorities exploring ways to soften the “hardship” resulting from equalisation. For instance, in April 2018, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority made off-peak bus travel free to women born between October 1953 and November 1954.
“These women and their families have suffered an injustice at the hands of successive governments,” said Lizzie Collinge, the Labour Lancashire councillor who proposed the motion.
We at the county council can’t change the pension law, but we do have a way of ameliorating some of this hardship
Lizzie Collinge, Lancashire County Council
“You plan based on what you know. If the retirement age is 60, you plan on that. You save, you try to pay off your mortgage, you make plans to care for your elders or your grandchildren – then whoomph, your plans are shattered,” she told the council meeting.
Around 3.8m women were affected by the changes. Some lost up to £50,000, Ms Collinge said.
“That’s a huge amount of money … We at the county council can’t change the pension law … but we do have a way of ameliorating some of this hardship,” she said.
She urged the council to send a message on the “injustice” of equalisation. “We have the power to help some of these women. We should do it.”
The Pensions Act 2011 accelerated plans, outlined in the Pensions Act 1995, to equalise the retirement age for men and women. For women, the retirement age rose to 63 from 60 in 2016, and again to 65 from 63 in 2018. The state pension age for both men and women is set to rise again to 66 in 2020.
On June 5 this year, campaign group BackTo60 headed to the High Court for a judicial review into the government’s implementation.
BackTo60 and Women Against State Pension Injustice do not contest the principle behind retirement age equality, but rather the government’s speed and communication when implementing the policy.
Campaigners have claimed thousands of women born in the 1950s were not reached by government channels of communication, despite the Department for Work and Pensions running an awareness campaign, leaving them unprepared for continuing work.
The DWP, however, has dampened expectations of a policy U-turn.
Estimates released on June 7 claimed a reversal would cost £215.2bn by 2026, which work and pensions secretary Amber Rudd said she was “slightly sceptical” incoming prime minister Boris Johnson would pay.
WASPI said it was “disappointed” by Ms Rudd’s comments.
