Sign the Petition for Womens state pension age going up unfair

I am a woman affected by this change - to the tune of around 48k - and am so disappointed by the vitriolic posts here that ignore the following disadvantage that this age group of women have experienced.

1. The massive disparity between men and women's pay that exists even in the public sector today ie BBC. We still haven't implemented publishing the gender pay gap !
2. The massive disadvantage the main child carer experiences in terms of reduced hours, promotion etc. Yes there are some men who are house husbands, but not many
3. Women continue to be the ones who keep the household running and carry the domestic burden in 90%+ of cases
4. Women continue to be the main carers for elderly/ disabled family members in 90%+ of cases

Women now in their 20's have better educational outcomes than men. However, when women now in their 60s were in their 20s , what percentage went on to higher education compared to men. What did they earn compared to men?

Discrimination on the basis of gender has been illegal in the UK since 1975. More than 40 years ago. It is still a long way from being eliminated. Using this legislation to equalise the state retirement age and then raising this for all has had a disproportionate effect on a group of women who have been severely disadvantaged in the workplace for the whole of their adult lives

Nual wrote: »

I am a woman affected by this change - to the tune of around 48k - and am so disappointed by the vitriolic posts here that ignore the following disadvantage that this age group of women have experienced.

1. The massive disparity between men and women's pay that exists even in the public sector today ie BBC. We still haven't implemented publishing the gender pay gap !
2. The massive disadvantage the main child carer experiences in terms of reduced hours, promotion etc. Yes there are some men who are house husbands, but not many
3. Women continue to be the ones who keep the household running and carry the domestic burden in 90%+ of cases
4. Women continue to be the main carers for elderly/ disabled family members in 90%+ of cases

Women now in their 20's have better educational outcomes than men. However, when women now in their 60s were in their 20s , what percentage went on to higher education compared to men. What did they earn compared to men?

Discrimination on the basis of gender has been illegal in the UK since 1975. More than 40 years ago. It is still a long way from being eliminated. Using this legislation to equalise the state retirement age and then raising this for all has had a disproportionate effect on a group of women who have been severely disadvantaged in the workplace for the whole of their adult lives

These are things that are discussed in other contexts, but only your last paragraph actually has anything about state pensions.

Women with career breaks are able to make up missing years of contributions, or qualify on the basis of husband's contributions (as my mother did), and in any case nobody is compelled to have as many years as possible.

Most of the changes will have been known for about 20 to 25 years by the time the people affected are 60 years old. That seems like plenty of notice.

It is true that accelerating the process for age equalisation to happen about 2 years earlier than previously foreseen didn't have as much notice given, but even this will be a few years.

There could be a case for arguing about the fairness of this part, and indeed maybe it would be better tactics to concentrate on this rather than reigniting arguments to span 30 years, but that doesn't add up to £48,000 or £80,000 or whatever numbers are being mentioned.

But I'm a man, so what I'm saying may be at risk of being declared both ignorant and sexist.

molerat wrote: »

Precisely, 40 years on and men are still being discriminated against in when they receive their state pensions

Exactly. Mr S will get his State pension at 65 - but, if he'd had a twin sister, she would have got her State pension at 63 years and 3 months.

Nual wrote: »

I am a woman affected by this change - to the tune of around 48k - and am so disappointed by the vitriolic posts here that ignore the following disadvantage that this age group of women have experienced.

1. The massive disparity between men and women's pay that exists even in the public sector today ie BBC. We still haven't implemented publishing the gender pay gap !
2. The massive disadvantage the main child carer experiences in terms of reduced hours, promotion etc. Yes there are some men who are house husbands, but not many
3. Women continue to be the ones who keep the household running and carry the domestic burden in 90%+ of cases
4. Women continue to be the main carers for elderly/ disabled family members in 90%+ of cases

Women now in their 20's have better educational outcomes than men. However, when women now in their 60s were in their 20s , what percentage went on to higher education compared to men. What did they earn compared to men?

Discrimination on the basis of gender has been illegal in the UK since 1975. More than 40 years ago. It is still a long way from being eliminated. Using this legislation to equalise the state retirement age and then raising this for all has had a disproportionate effect on a group of women who have been severely disadvantaged in the workplace for the whole of their adult lives

I agree with you and it is not fair on you.

You are quite right in all you say and even now as you have pointed out women do not have parity with men on jobs and salaries as has been highlighted in the media very recently.

GibbsRule_No3 wrote: »

But Mr S knew when he signed up that he would get it at 65 his twin sister would have been told 60, then had it moved to 63 and 3 months and then both would be told now 66, so lucky him he only factor in 1 extra year not suddenly have it changed by 6. So both would have benefitted if his extra year had been phased in.

It's still 65 for his State pension (just). However, State pensions didn't factor into our 'signing up' - just our RAF pensions.

To be fair, the re-equalisation of State pension age should have been part of the 1975 Sex Equality Act - that way the increases could have been phased in much more gradually. Unfortunately, Harold Wilson was only interested in vote winners rather than vote losers.