2. Public expenditure on State Pensions in the UK is among the lowest in the OECD; this reflects the fact that the main state pension for current pensioners is nearly £40 per week less than the government’s own poverty threshold (the means-tested minimum guarantee Pension Credit)
3. The new Single Tier Pension is just above the single rate of Pension Credit but due to transitional rules, it will be decades before women generally receive as much state pension as men.
4. Private pension schemes, promoted and subsidised by UK governments, are the main reason for the gender gap in pensions, placing women at a disadvantage due to their domestic roles and lower pay.
5. Among 65–74 yr olds, median private pension wealth is £182,400 for men & £25,000 for women (meaning these women have just 1/7 of the private pension wealth of men)
Among the population as a whole women’s median pension wealth is £6,000, barely 1/4 of the £22,600 held by men
6. Auto-enrolled private pensions, while including all employers, exclude low-paid employees and like other private pensions, make no allowance for periods of caring, hence perpetuating the gender gap in pensions.
8. We conclude that a Voluntary Earnings related State Pension Addition (VESPA) – an auto-enrolled option that is fully portable and allows carer credits – would be simpler and would better meet women’s need for extra pension saving.
10. For those who retired before April 2016, the full amount of the Basic State Pension (BSP) remains nearly £40 per week below the level of means-tested (single rate) Pension Credit.
11. Older retired women, in particular, are less likely than men to receive the full amount because of legacy rules that treated married women as dependent on their husbands
12. Women’s domestic roles are crucial to their pension disadvantage
Women’s lesser chance of being in employment, especially full time, has been their key handicap in accumulating private pensions and is strongly associated with marriage and motherhood
13. The gender differential in private pension wealth is substantial among those aged over age 65 (see Tables 1 and 2). Among 65–74 year olds median private pension wealth is £182,400 for men and £25,000 for women (just 1/7 of the private pension wealth of men)
16. The Basic State Pension (BSP) fell relative to average earnings, from around 25% in
1979 to 16% by 2001, due to inadequate annual uprating, while the State Earnings Related Pension was substantially cut
17. This was particularly damaging for women
already in retirement since they typically derive a higher proportion of their income than men from the State Pension and other state benefits – as remains the case today (61% for women and 51% for men)
18. The gains for women were offset by the Coalition government’s acceleration of the raising of the State Pension Age (SPA), reaching 66 in October 2020 – nearly six years earlier than originally planned – and set to reach 67 by 2028
19. The rise in SPA was particularly rapid for women born in the 1950s, leaving them insufficient time to adjust their retirement plans. The government accepted the recommendation of the Cridland Review to bring forward the rise in SPA to 68 to 2037-9 instead of 2044-6
@JimShannonMP 1) The WASPI women are the generation of women born in the 1950s who have been adversely affected by the changes to the state pension age in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
#50sWomen
@JimShannonMP 2) They argue that they were not given adequate notice of transitional arrangements to adjust to the increase in their state pension age from 60 to 65 or 66, depending on their date of birth. That is the crux of this debate.
#50sWomen
@peter_aldous 3) The hon. Member said that the so-called WASPI women “argue” that they were not properly advised and informed but the stage 1 report produced by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
👉actually confirmed👈that they were not properly advised and informed
🗣️You really need to read this and watch the video!
Dr Jocelynne Scutt on why mediation is the only legal way forward to solve the 13 year old pensions dispute for 1950s women September 24, 2023 by @davidhencke
⬇️ davidhencke.com/2023/09/24/dr-…
@DrDavinaLloyd1 interviews Dr Jocelynne Scutt, author of the ground-breaking Judge’s report on the plight of 1950s women who faced a six year delay in getting their pensions @davidhencke
The video with Dr Jocelynne Scutt explains clearly and concisely the current impasse over resolving the dispute between 3.5 million 1950s born women and the government over the six year delay in getting their pensions @davidhencke
@paullewismoney "Six years state pension in present day values is worth around £60,000. And these women want to get their lost money back. Or at least some of it"
1) WHY shouldn't #50sWomen receive their Earned #StatePension when most worked from 15-16?
@paullewismoney "But for 14 years the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), kept quiet. Not a single letter was written to any of those affected until April 2009 and that programme stopped two years later"
2) "An influential all party report by peers and MPs published last week (see my report in Byline Times) found nine recent judgements by the Supreme Court were favouring the government over the individual"
2) "A truly damning report by MPs on the Commons Public Accounts Committee today castigates the Department for Work and Pensions for running an “unfit for purpose” system to pay pensions to more than 12 million people" @davidhencke
3) The scandal of 134,000 pensioners being underpaid by around £1 billion dates back over 37 years and a number have already died before they could receive the money.