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Government pushes ahead with plans to raise state pension age for women
The UK coalition government has won a vote in the House of Commons to take forward plans to raise the state pension age for women. 500,000 women will now have to wait 18 months to two years longer than they expected before they can collect their state pension, costing them up to £15,000 each.
The equalisation of the state pension between men and women will now be accelerated with women’s retirement age rising from 60 to 65 in 2018, two years earlier than previous plans. The retirement age will then rise to 66 for both men and women in 2020.
Many of the women affected, who are currently in their mid to late 50s, are already seriously disadvantaged when it comes to pensions, especially those who work part-time. Most of the women will have earned less over their lifetime, have less savings, and less of a pension than men of the equivalent age. Many of the women will also have had interrupted careers due to taking time out to care for children, which means they will have vast holes in their pension pots. Many will also not have had access to company pension schemes. On top of this, these women have now been given very little notice to make alternative plans for their retirement.
More than 170 MPs have now signed a Commons motion calling for a rethink over the plans, including both Conservative and Liberal Democrat backbenchers.
Clarification from Equalities Minister on the aims of the Red Tape Challenge
Lynne Featherstone, Minister for Equalities has recently released a statement to reassure stakeholders that the inclusion of the Equality Act 2010 on the Red Tape Challenge website does not mean that the Government wishes to abolish it.
Here is what the statement says:
'...However, the presence of the Equality Act 2010 on the Red Tape Challenge website has raised some concern amongst some stakeholders. I’m therefore writing to clarify the Government’s position.
Firstly, I would like to assure you of this Government’s strong commitment to equality. We are not changing direction on this. We set out our commitment in the Coalition Programme and Theresa May, the Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, set out the Government’s approach in more detail in the Equality Strategy published last December.
Secondly, as the website now makes clear, a particular regulation being featured on the Red Tape Challenge website should not be read as implying any intention on the part of the Government to remove that regulation.
Indeed, the Home Secretary stated in Parliament on 5 May, in reference to the Equality Act’s inclusion on the Red Tape Challenge website, that "it is not the Government’s intention to abolish the Equality Act.’
Instead, the Government wants to hear from members of the public, businesses and voluntary and community organisations about how the Act is working in practice. We want to know whether the Act could be simplified, better implemented, or if certain provisions should be dropped or amended, or whether it should be kept exactly as it is.
From June 9 until June 30, the Red Tape Challenge will have a spotlight on the Equalities theme, which will be facilitated by Caroline Waters, Head of HR, at BT. During this period, I would like to invite you to visit www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk and participate in an informed debate on how we can deliver better regulation.
Any proposals for change would receive careful consideration as to whether they were proportionate, practical, beneficial and in keeping with our wider commitments and EU or domestic legal obligations. Any proposals that passed that test would need to go through the appropriate consultation and Parliamentary process.
I hope this helps to reassure you and clarifies what we are aiming to do. We welcome your input to the Red Tape Challenge website and all relevant consultations.'
Protect equalities and take the Red Tape Challenge
As discussed in a prior blog post, the aim of the Red Tape Challenge website is to seek your views on the ways in which to, primarily, rid business of the burden of regulations and the bureaucracy associated with them.
Many comments on the website have expressed deep concern over the inclusion of the Equality Act, as it represents decades of fighting for social justice and fighting for protections from discrimination in the workplace.
9 June 2011: spotlight on equalities
Every few weeks the Government publishes all the regulations associated with a particular sector on the Red Tape Challenge website. The Red Tape Challenge will be turning the spotlight on equalities regulations on the 9 June 2011 for approximately three weeks.
During this time there will be an external facilitator from the Government to stimulate debate and facilitate more specific questions in relation to the Equality Act (as well as existing questions which include, ‘should they be scrapped altogether?’).
The appointed facilitator might organise other events to stimulate debate or indeed target the business press, so there may be opportunities to comment or participate in this consultation elsewhere.
It will be very important for individuals and organisations to post on the site during this time, even if you have already done so. The equalities section should appear on the front page from 9 June, but in the interim you can access existing comments on equalities under the General Regulations.
The last thing we want to do is give the Government a mandate to dilute or take steps to reverse equalities legislation, which is the hallmark of a progressive society. So please post a response.
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