Make Fair Transitional State Pension Arrangements for 1950’s Women
Motion passed, with cross party support to support women of the 50’s get fair transitional arrangements for changes to their state pension
Make Fair Transitional State Pension Arrangements for 1950’s Women is a lobby to Government that Cornwall Councillors were happy to support.
Cornwall Council is calling on the Government to make fair transitional state pension arrangements for all women who were born on or after April 1951.
Members at this week’s meeting of the full Council voted overwhelmingly in favour of a Motion put forward by Councillor Mario Fonk asking the Council to lobby the Government to reconsider the current transitional arrangements so that women do not live in hardship due to pension changes they were not told about changes until it was too late to make alternative arrangements.
Proposing the Motion Mario Fonk said “ Hundreds of thousands of women have had significant pension changes imposed on them by the Pensions Act of 1995 and 2011 with little or no personal notification of the changes. Some have only had two years notice of a six year increase to their state pension age. 30,000 of these women live in Cornwall.
“Many women born in the 1950’s are living in hardship, having seen their retirement plans shattered with devastating consequences. Some are already out of the labour market, caring for elderly relatives, providing childcare for relatives or suffering from discrimination, so are struggling to find employment.
“These women have worked hard, raised families and paid their tax and national insurance with the expectation that they would be financially secure when they reached the age of 60.
Adding that it was not the principle of the pension age itself that was in dispute, as it was widely accepted that women and men should retire at the same time, Mr Fonk said that the issue was that the rise in the women’s state pension age had been too rapid and had happened without sufficient notice being given to the women affected. This has left them with no time to make alternative arrangements.
The Motion was supported by all sides of the Council Chamber, with Members agreeing to write to the Government calling on them to change the transitional arrangements.