Latest news

Thousands of women affected by pension inequality

Nearly 4000 women born in the 1950s and living in Glasgow South are being denied their pension after independent research unveiled by the SNP showed Tory figures on pension inequality are wrong.

Current pension rules have resulted in 2.6 million women in the UK, including 3900 in Glasgow South, receiving their pension years later than was originally expected.

The Pensions Act 2011 accelerated an increase in women’s State Pension Age from 63 to 65 between April 2016 and November 2018, and from 65 to 66 by October 2020.

The issue has been debated several times in the House of Commons and the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) groups have campaigned endlessly against the changes, but the UK Government has said, at a cost of £30 billion, it would simply be too expensive to correct their mistakes of the past.

But research by Landman Economics has suggested it would cost £8 billion to return to the original timetable set out in the 1995 Pensions Act – a significantly cheaper option for the UK Government.

Commenting, Stewart McDonald MP for Glasgow South said;

“The UK Government needs to face up to the reality, as this issue has affected thousands of women in my own constituency and millions across the whole UK. The Tories have ducked their responsibility to the WASPI women for too long.

“By returning to the 1995 Pensions Act, this Government could slow the rise of the state pension age for women to reach 65 by 2021. The initial cost of Westminster’s refurbishment is set at £7 billion –surely to rise too- and will only benefit those privileged enough to serve as a MP. But £8 billion to change pension rules would be a drop in ocean and would benefit millions across the UK, and send a message the Prime Minister is serious about working ‘not just the privileged few’.

“I hope this report means that UK Government will now get its act together and at last bring an end this inequality. It is shameful that the Tories have recklessly abandoned their obligations to pensioners”

Read the full report published by the SNP at Westminster here