WOMEN of Redditch unite and fight for your pensions! – that’s the message from Redditch campaigner Kath Skermer.
And she is urging residents, brothers, husbands, partners and children to lobby local MP Karen Lumley over an issue which will see some local women lose years from their pensions.
Kath, from Winyates Green, is campaigning on behalf of WASPI – Women Against State Pension Inequality – against a ruling that will see women born in the 1950s lose years from their pensions.
“We are urging people to lobby their MPs as this could cause severe hardship to women,” said Kath.
To make matter worse many women only had minimum of notice of the changes, while others received no notification at all.
Finance expert Paul Lewis of Radio 4’s Moneybox said: “We know now that they were first written to about the changes between the ages of 57 years five months and 58 years one month before they reached 60, giving them just 22 to 30 months to rearrange their lives.
“Many women received no notification at all, others had less than one year’s notice.”
Previously women could retire and receive their State pension at 60.
However a 1995 Act of Parliament raised their pensionable age to 65 in line with men. This has since been extended further.
It means that women born in the 1950s, who for years would have anticipated retiring at 60, will have to carry on working, with women born in 1953 and 1954 bearing the brunt of the changes.
For instance, a woman born on June 30, 1953 will have to wait until she is 63 years, eight months and six days before she can claim her pension, while a woman born four months later, on October 27, 1953 will have to wait until she is 64 years, eight months and nine days – more than a year longer.
Kath added: “Some women may have gone through a divorce and a decision may have been made on them receiving their State Pension at 60 when in fact they will get nothing then.
“I fear many women in Redditch do not realise how drastically this will affect their lives and I am urging them to lobby our MP and sign the WASPI petition.”
Mrs Lumley said: “I have every sympathy with the campaigners and have written to the Chancellor (George Osborne) on their behalf.
“This issue grew out of a need to harmonise retirement ages, however people are living longer and we have had to extend this as not to have done so would have cost us £39 billion.
“The bottom line is where do we get that £39 billion? It’s a very difficult situation and a difficult decision had to be made. This shows that everyone must be encouraged to save for their retirement.”
For more details on WASPI visit http://on.fb.me/1XazD71 .
