Pension changes unfair for woman says Sussex MP

Millions of people around the country are affected by rules equalising the state pension ages for men and women that say they cannot claim a state pension until 66 when they had been told it would be 60.

In the Eastbourne constituency alone, Caroline Ansell MP says this will affect around 4700 women.

She says that change has come because the government is committed to equalising the retirement age for men and women.

Women born between April 6 1951 and until April 6 1960 will be affected by the six-year jump and miss out.

Ms Ansell said: "I have supported the campaign by Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) to lobby the Government into introducing transitional arrangements for those women affected.

"This really is an unfair situation that I campaigned to try and correct since I was elected.

"I do not underestimate how difficult the task or how challenging it is to seek to reverse what was fought and lost in the last Parliament, but that doesn’t mean we should not try and I feel I would be letting down all those women across the country if I did not do everything I can to try and get some form of concession.

"Women have been seriously disadvantaged by the change and in their name I will take this as far and as high as I can."

Ms Ansell will be joining the local WASPI group to gather up the petition before it goes to Westminster, and it will be presented, along with others from across the country, today.

Earlier this year the Government said it would not be possible to unwind the changes to the state pension age that mean women stand to lose out.

The then Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb told MPs that women who stand to lose thousands of pounds should not expect the Government to intervene.

He said he understood women who said they felt that they were taken by surprise by the changes but said it would be "impossible" to unwind changes dating back more than 20 years.