Pensions Bill

Written evidence from Lorraine Hart (PB 13)

1. In view of the recent changes announced in favour of the 80,000 cohort, what now of the remaining women whose retirement date was put back, but who still will not benefit from the flat rate pension (those , I believe, who were born between 6th April 1952 and 5th July 1953) . I was born in March 1953, and had expected to retire at the age of 60, but now have to wait until I am very nearly 63, whilst also not seeing any of the benefits of the new flat rate plans.

2. This seems to be very unfair. Surely an excepti onal case should be made for the women in this group, and entitlement to the flat rate pension be made available to us. We remain the victims of a double whammy.

3. I have an idea to help iron out the unfairness of us being affected twice. The government could allow this particular group of women to defer their pension, and make the deferral date their date of retirement, so that they can access the flat rate pension. At the moment, of course, you can defer, but your official retirement age remains the same.

4. If a woman cannot do this (because she has no savings), then she could top up with pension credits on the old system, and receive almost the same pension as the Flat Pension. For those women who cannot top up with pension credit because they have savings, they could defer their pension until the flat rate pension comes in, live off their savings, and then take a lump sum when they start getting their pension, so that they can reinstate their savings.

June 2013