Pension Age Rise Protests

Thousands of women in their fifties and sixties have been left destitute as changes to the state pension age leave huge holes in their finances – with the worst hit driven to self-harm and contemplating suicide.

Ministers have been urged to take action as research shows the decision to increase the female state pension age from 60 to 66 – and lack of awareness over the change – has had a detrimental effect on many women born in the 1950s.

Around 2.6 million women were affected by a law in 2011 which pushed forward plans to increase their state pension age to equal to that of men – but many were never made aware of this.  

Campaigners said the findings demonstrated an “unforgivable” failure by successive governments to consider the impact of the change and inform those who would be affected by it, and accused ministers of “overlooking” their needs.

Yvette Greenway, chief executive of Silence of Suicide, said: “For a lot of women there was no notice at all, or very little notice. The financial arrangements they’d planned for all their working lives no longer stood. Is it any surprise that we now have women who are left in a state of absolute torture, not knowing what to do? It’s unforgivable and the most callous of cruelties. Their needs have been overlooked. These women have paid into the pot and entrusted to successive governments to look after and to give back to them at a time in their lives when they should be able to slow down and relax a little. It is a scandal.”