Newcastle North MP, Catherine McKinnell, challenged Work and Pensions Ministers in the Commons today (11th March) on the discriminatory impact of the Coalition’s new, single tier, state pension.
Around 430,000 women born between April 1952 and July 1953 will retire before 2017 and will therefore not be eligible for the new single tier state pension. They will draw the basic weekly pension of £107.45 (in today’s prices) on retirement. However, men born in the same period are due to retire in 2017, and so will be eligible for the new single-tier rate. This could mean these women drawing a state pension income of around £1,900 a year (£36.55 a week) less than a man of the same age.
Catherine raised the same issue with Work and Pensions Ministers earlier this year.
Speaking after Work and Pensions Questions today, Catherine said:
“We know that around 1,700 across Newcastle, born between April 1952 and July 1953, will miss out on the new state pension – yet men of the same age will be entitled to receive it.
“These are the very same women whom the Government penalised in 2011 by raising their pension age, forcing them to change their retirement plans and make significant changes to their finances – and all at very short notice.
“I asked the Minister what message this sends to the hard-working women of Newcastle, straight after Mother’s Day and International Women’s Day. His claim that they are better off because they are allowed to retire earlier is simply not good enough.
“These women have worked hard throughout their lives, juggling work with raising a family and often in pretty modestly paid roles. If they are retired for 20 years, they could lose up to £38,000 – well over twice what they will receive from retiring earlier.”