A number of women helped deliver a giant postcard to Prime Minister, David Cameron, urging him not to increase the women's State Pension Age beyond 65 until 2020.
The postcard, which was delivered by six women as part of Age UK's continuing campaign, reminded the Prime Minister that the Coalition Government is breaking its promise by raising the women's state pension age earlier than planned.
Proposals in the Pensions Bill - soon to receive its final reading in Parliament - will see thousands of women forced to wait an extra two years for their state pension with less than seven years notice to plan for the change. Age UK is warning that this doesn't leave enough time to plan for a later state pension age and risks plunging hundreds of thousands of women in to poverty.
Work and Pensions Minister Iain Duncan Smith promised in Parliament that the Government would consider changes to the Pensions Bill to at least reduce the impact of the proposals, but so far the Government has not announced any changes.
330,000 women born between December 1953 and October 1954 will be hit hardest, having to wait between 18 months and two years longer for their state pension. The 33,000 women who will have to wait an extra two years, will lose on average £10,000 of state pension income as a result. These women have already been asked to move their State Pension Age to 65 and this is the second time they will face having to retire even later.
Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director at Age UK said: "This is the Government's last chance to do the right thing by thousands of hard-working women up and down the country who are being penalised by the Pensions Bill. We are simply asking them to stick to their original pledge not to raise the state pension age before 2020 for women.
"At the very least, we are calling on the Government to mitigate the effects of the worst affected groups of women by capping any increase to the state pensions age to 18 months or less. We also want to see a clear plan of action as to how all the women affected will be contacted to inform them of the changes.
"The battle on this issue is not over. MPs across all the political parties recognise the unfairness of these changes. By contacting your MP now you can still make a difference and persuade the Government to change its mind."
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