Labour would allow women born in the 1950s to be able to draw the state pension at a reduced rate from the age of 64.
Debbie Abrahams MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, is to tell the Labour conference in Brighton that a Labour government would allow women who currently have to wait until the age of 66 for their pension to receive it at 64.
Ms Abrahams will say her plan would mean pension security would be available to 2.6 million women
However there is a catch – the women will have their entitlement reduced by 6% for each early retirement year, up to a maximum of 12 per cent.
“Today Labour announces new proposals to end the historic injustice faced by 1950s born women, as promised in our manifesto ‘For the many, not the few’.
“We are calling on the Government to immediately allow those affected by state pension age equalisation the chance to retire two years earlier at age 64.
“We will continue to work with these women to get justice.”
The Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign is pushing for a transitional pension to help women whose retirement plans have been thrown into disarray and have urged the Government to think again.
But critics say many women born in the 1950s were not made aware of the changes in time to plan ahead, and now face years of retirement without their pension.
Former pension minister and Royal London director of policy, Steve Webb said:
“Writing new primary legislation, getting it through Parliament, and implementing the change on the ground is likely to take at least two years.
“If this legislation completed its passage through Parliament during the 2018/19 session, it would take at least another year to change government computer systems and to communicate effectively to all those who might be affected.
“By the time the new law could be implemented, most of the women who had the shortest notice of state pension age changes would already be drawing a state pension.”
WASPI Director Jane Cowley said the group was “disappointed and concerned”, adding:
“This morning it was reported that the proposal due to be announced would only apply to some WASPI women. This is no better than the actuarial reduced pension suggested some time ago and rejected by the WASPI Campaign because it pushes women into pensioner poverty.”
Rebecca joined the HRreview editorial team in January 2016. After graduating from the University of Sheffield Hallam in 2013 with a BA in English Literature, Rebecca has spent five years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past she has been part of the editorial teams at Sleeper and Dezeen and has founded her own arts collective.
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