- Conference
- 2019 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 23 October 2018
- Decision
- Carried
Under the 1995 Pensions Act a timetable was drawn up to equalise the age at which men and women could draw the state pension.
In the 2011 Pensions Act the new qualifying age of 65 for women was brought forward to 2018, a move that has seen 3.9 million 1950’s women lose out. The 2011 Act also accelerated the state pension rises, adding a further year to women’s state pension age from 65 to 66.
Conservative MP’s have stated that equalisation of state pension ages was a requirement of EU law – this is not the case. Article 7 of the EU directive specifically states that the determination of the state pension age is the right of member states. A 2007 European Commission report confirmed that different state pension ages are allowed and are common place across the EU. EU law allows for different state pension ages and long transitional arrangements.
In a March 2015 report on ‘Communication of State Pension age changes’, the Work and Pensions Select Committee concluded that “more could and should have been done” to communicate the changes and called on the Government to “explore the option of permitting a defined group of women who have been affected by state pension age changes to take early retirement, from a specified age, on an “actuarially neutral basis”.
The Government argues that the changes in the 2011 Act were debated at length and a decision made by Parliament, as part of which a concession was made to limit the impact on those most affected. It says it will “make no further changes to the pension age or pay financial redress in lieu of a pension.”
As a direct result of the above, several campaign groups have been established and stand defiantly against the inequality and unfair treatment of women born in the 1950s who will experience changes to their state pension age.
The biggest of these campaign groups with approximately 738,000 supporters is the Backto60.com campaign group.
The Backto60 for 1950s Women campaign group argues that while the 1995 Conservative government’s Pension Act included plans to increase the women’s state pension age to 65 – the same as men’s – the changes were implemented unfairly, with little or no personal notice, leaving women with no time to make alternative plans and devastating consequences for many.
In any event, 1950s Women had ‘contracted in’ for a state pension at 60 despite some ‘contracting out’ of SERPS, at intervals. It had been woven into the fabric of society based on the lifelong inequities 1950s Women faced due to pay gaps.
The objective of the Backto60 campaign group is to ensure that the state pension age be kept at 60 for women born in the 1950’s.
This objective has been dismissed by the government leaving no option other than to seek a judicial review of the governments implementation and tapering of the pensions changes.
BackTo60’s claim was lodged at the High Court against the Department for Work and Pensions on 30 July 2018. The world class legal team is led by Michael Mansfield QC at Nexus Chambers.
The move is the culmination of action taken by the group which now involves support on the issue from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which raised the issue at the United Nations, the Fawcett Society and other campaigners. A professor of Feminist Law will shortly provide an Amicus Brief that discusses alarming breaches of CEDAW Articles.
Whilst the Backto60 campaign group is the largest of its kind, it finds itself being excluded from democratic procedures due to fundamental policy differences between itself and other campaigning bodies: £271bn is missing from the National Insurance Fund and the latter is still abundantly full.
The Backto60 campaign group is very clear that it will accept nothing less than a return to 60 of state pension age for 1950s Women.
Conference calls upon the National Women’s Committee to work with the NEC and other relevant bodies in UNISON to use whatever means possible to:
1)Support the objectives of the Backto60 campaign;
2)Work with the Backto60 campaign, where appropriate, to campaign for a fair deal for women and encourage regions, branches and members to make links with their local Backto60 campaign;
3)Develop information leaflets and a briefing sheet so that branch women’s officer and branches can raise awareness of the Backto60campaign and encourage support at a local level and in particular with employers; and
4)To provide feedback to the 2020 Women Members Conference on progress.