A 10,000-name petition was delivered to Downing Street yesterday condemning changes in pensions which will hit women worst. Barbara Bates, from County Durham, tells Sharon Griffiths why she went to No 10.

BARBARA BATES feels she’s been robbed of two years of her life.

That’s why she was in London yesterday for the first time in more than 40 years – determined to do something about it.

As part of AGE UK’s mass lobby of Parliament, Barbara, an administrator with Co-op Funeralcare, in Shildon, County Durham, was delivering a 10,000-name petition to Prime Minister David Cameron on behalf of 500,000 women born in 1953 and 1954 who could lose up to £15,000 if the Pensions Bill becomes law.

These women will have to wait an extra year for their pensions and 33,000 of those – including Barbara – will have to work an extra two years.

When Barbara, now 57, started work as a 15- year-old, she was told she could retire at 60. A few years ago, she was told she would have to continue working until she was 64. “I accepted that and could understand it. I could see we had to be equal with men and there was time to adjust,” she says.

But then, despite promises to the contrary, the Government announced a speed-up in the increase for the state pension age for women.

Now Barbara and others have to work yet another two years, until they are 66, with very little time to prepare. “I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me,” said Barbara as she prepared for the London trip.

“Since the pension changes in the Nineties, I’ve expected to retire in 2018, when I’ll be 64.

All my plans for the future have been based on this. I have osteo-arthritis in my thumbs and wrists and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to physically manage until I’m 66, but as the basic state pension will be my only retirement income, I’ve got no option but to carry on working.”

Among the many people backing calls for a fairer way of raising the retirement age is Age UK and Saga. Dr Ros Altman, Saga’s director general, says: “Yes, pension age must rise, but not in this unfair, rushed way.

“Putting pensions on a sustainable longterm footing does not justify the sudden increase being imposed on one group of women at such short notice, especially when the Government knows that these particular women are more vulnerable than men and have little or no private pension wealth.”

“For many of these women, unemployment benefit is not an option and, in any case, will not replace two years’ of lost pension. Out-ofwork benefits will last only six months and are far less than the state pension.”

Barbara is not afraid of work. As well as her job, she’s well known in the Shildon area for her many fundraising activities, in particular for animal welfare charities.

Ironically, her older sister, Ruth Ockenden, with whom she shares a house, was one of the last women able to retire at 60. But she has campaigned vigorously on behalf of women like her sister and has written to every single MP, hoping to change their minds.

WITH so many of us living far longer than previous generations, no one denies that there is a desperate need to reform pensions, including starting paying them at a later age. But Saga and other organisations have come up with a number of alternative plans that they say are not only fairer, but also better value.

These include keeping the current timetable until 2020 and then accelerating the rise in pension age to 66 by 2021 and to 67 by April 2025, so giving people time to prepare.

“The Government is unfairly targeting women with this sudden rise in the state pension age,” says Shadow Minister for Pensions, Rachel Reeves. “In doing so, they are clearly breaching the coalition agreement. If these plans become law, they will leave women with little time to prepare for their retirement and many of them are not in a position to rely on occupation pension savings.”

Barbara, a widow, has worked all her life, apart from a few years as carer to her late husband.

She says: “New pension rules state that people now need only 30 years’ contributions to claim a state pension. If I work until I’m 66, by the time I retire I will have an unbroken record of 51 years’ contributions. That just doesn’t seem fair.”

Protestors’ Summary of Unfairness

• Number of men facing increased state pension age of more than one year: None
• Number of women facing increased state pension age of over one year: 500,000
• Number of women facing increased state pension age of over 18 months: 300,000
• Number of years’ pension age increase for women between 2010-2026: Six
• Number of years’ pension age increase for men 2010-2021: One
• Number of years’ notice of up to two-year rise in pension age for women: Six
• Number of years’ notice of up to one-year rise in pension age for men: Seven
• Proportion of these women who are single: 35-40 per cent
• Proportion of women already out of the labour force: 37 per cent
• Proportion of these women with no private pension: 40 per cent
• Average savings for man aged 56: £52,800
• Average savings for woman aged 56: £9,100
• • Worst affected: 33,000 women born between March 6, 1954 and April 5, 1954, who will lose exactly two years’ pension – up to £15,000.