A woman who was forced to find work again at the age of 60 after a change in the state pension age says it cost her £40,000 and has compared the government’s U-turn to fraud.
Laurianne Peake, 67, had spent her entire teaching career expecting to retire at the age of 60 – although she was forced to give up her job at 55 due to ill health.
But after two years on Employment and Support Allowance, she was then asked to begin a soul-destroying, two-year job hunt.
She was then horrified to discover at the age of 59 that her ordeal was to continue for another six years, when she was suddenly told the state pension age for women had been put up to 65.
“My husband, John, lost his job three times in ten years, which made it even worse, and we had to consolidate our debts. If I had had my pension, things would have been a lot better,” Laurianne told the Lancashire Live.
Still suffering from the chronic fatigue syndrome and brain fog that had forced her to leave her job in 2011, Laurianne had to then continue to apply for ‘hundreds’ of jobs to be eligible for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA).
She said: “The assessment tests which we had every two years were not applicable to my needs. It was embarrassing and humiliating - I had to lift my arm up, lift my leg up and kneel.
“An advisor from the DWP asked me to look for jobs , despite the fact I was not well enough. I was forced to bring in all evidence of applying for jobs every two weeks, otherwise I would not receive the little that I was allowed to have, through my ESA.”
Laurianne, now a member of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign, added, “I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere because they didn’t want to know because of my age.”
The mother of two and grandmother of six was finally able to retire two years ago, but says she is angry that the pension payments that had been promised to her, and women of her generation, were not forthcoming in that time.
She began work in 1971, at Barclays bank. Stints as a child minder and in a sorting office followed, which saw her holding down two jobs whilst raising her children, before she became qualified in special needs and began working in education where despite her desire to continue, ill health forced her out of the job she loved.
Throughout her working life, Laurianne made national insurance contributions towards the state pension that women of her generation were told they would be able to claim at the age of 60 – and says it was suddenly increased, with very little notice, adding that the change in the law cost her £40 000 in pension payments.
“It was something like £40,000 that I have lost, because of the increase in the state pension age for women.
“I think it is horrendous. To me, it is tantamount to fraud. I never expected not to get my pension at 60.
“You can’t plan anything at all in a few months, which is the amount of notice I got. It wasn’t enough time.
“We were penalised in the past – we had to give up our jobs when we fell pregnant, and didn’t get our national insurance contributions, then employers didn’t want us when we went back because the perception is that you are unreliable because of your children, and now we have lost out again.”
Yet Laurianne considers herself lucky compared to the ordeals of other WASPI women, some of whom she says have died while waiting for the pensions that were taken from them.
She added: “There have been a lot of women that have actually died before they reached their new pension age.
“These poor women that put all that money in, all their working lives, then they have not made it to 65, firstly because of ill health, and secondly because a lot have been left on their own and can’t afford to retire.
“I have heard stories of women who’ve ended up living with someone from their family or a friend, or they have ended up having to go to sheltered accommodation and hostels, which is what happens if you haven’t got anyone to fall back on.
“It is awful.”
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She says further proposals to axe free prescriptions for those aged over 60 and make them available at state pension age, will force many vulnerable pensioners into sacrificing vital medication.
She added: “They are going to take this off vulnerable people that need it. A lot of vulnerable, elderly people need prescriptions for health problems; it will be a case of having to choose between medication, heating, or food.”
Her message, though, is that the government should pay the pensions that were originally promised to the WASPI women at the beginning of their working lives.
“They should obviously pay out what is owed to us. We have put money in for a secure retirement and we haven’t got that, so we are worse off than when we were working. We want our money that we have paid in out of our wages, all our working lives.”
The state pension age for women was increased to equalise with men at 65, but both have subsequently been increased to 66, with further changes said to be in store.
Last summer, the Parliamentary Ombudsman ruled that government officials were too slow in informing many women of the rising state pension age, in a move that was hailed as a significant victory for the WASPI campaign which called on the government to compensate women affected.
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The ombudsman cannot, however, refund any pensions said to be 'lost' and cannot recommend that people receive state pensions earlier than permitted under current law.
A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “The Government decided over 25 years ago that it was going to make the state pension age the same for men and women as a long-overdue move towards gender equality.
“Raising State Pension age in line with life expectancy changes has been the policy of successive administrations over many years.”
They said both the High Court and Court of Appeal have supported the actions of the DWP, under successive governments dating back to 1995, and the Supreme Court refused the claimants permission to appeal.
The story behind the Waspi generation
Many women born in the 1950s were initially told they would retire at the age of 60 – five years earlier than men, until the government U-turned in the name of equal rights in 1995.
That year, the Department for Work and Pensions raised the pension age to 65, the same age as men.
But it gave women a 15-year reprieve, and then from 2010 began to start raising the age gradually.
In 2011, the government sped up the process - and dropped a bombshell on women born in 1953-4, who suddenly learnt they would have to wait longer than expected to retire.
This meant women born before 6 April 1950 still could retire at 60, but women born a year later would have to wait longer, and those born in the mid-50s have had to wait until their 66th birthday to claim the state pension.
The issue is that women who were approaching retirement already, say they were not properly informed of the changes.
There were calls for the DWP to pay out back pay, but the Waspi women lost a Court of Appeal in 2020 and a Supreme Court appeal was rejected last year.
The last Labour manifesto did promise to repay these women £58billion, but no other political party has shown willing.
