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Women still waiting for relief on state pension age changes
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Will Government resort to means testing as a quick fix?
Following last night's debate on the second reading of the Pensions Bill, the unfair state pensions age changes that have caused such distress and anger to over half a million women are still proceeding. However, it is clear that MPs from all parties are demanding a change to the current plans and Ian Duncan-Smith suggested that he was working on some kind of "transitional arrangements" to help the women worse affected.
What could this mean?
One possibility could be a compromise that I suggested some months ago which would allow those affected to still claim pension credit on the old state pension age timetable.
This would mean, for example, that a woman born in April 1954 who would not be eligible for state pension until she reached age 66 under the Pensions Bill changes, could still be allowed to claim means tested pension credit at age 64 if she had little other income. This would ensure that the poorest women did not loose out completely by having to wait longer for their state pension. It could also help the poorest men who would have to be permitted to claim pension credit at the same age as women.
This amendment would cost about an extra £300 million but would potentially alleviate the worst hardship. Many of those affected, however, are unlikely to be happy to be thrown onto means tested benefits.
And, of course, this still would not honour the coalition agreement nor would it remedy the unfairness of hitting the same women twice and increasing women's state pension age faster than men's.
This proposal would be a much more complicated way of addressing the problems caused by the Pensions Bill's proposed timetable, but then isn't that always how Government runs pensions policy? The motto seems to be - if it's pensions, it has to be complex and if there is a simple option, let's try to find a more complicated one!
Anyway, at the moment the women affected are still waiting for a decision and we are none the wiser after yesterday. I call on the Government to make its plans clear as soon as possible. Committee stage of the Bill starts on 5 July but report stage will not be until the Autumn. I hope we will not have to wait until then for a resolution.
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