news story

24th January 2008

Prime Minister Promises Action on Pensions After West MP's Commons Plea

  Click here to read the question and answer in Hansard

The Prime Minister has promised to help women pensioners in their 60s who are missing out on a possible pension boost, following a question in the Commons from local MP Steve Webb.

The Lib Dem MP, who has been running a longstanding campaign on behalf of women pensioners, raised the issue at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday. He pointed out that the Department of Work and Pensions holds records on tens of thousands of women in their sixties who could get a boost to their state pension under a complex scheme that few of them are aware of.

Mr. Webb asked the Prime Minister to ensure that the DWP alerted such women to their entitlements. In  response, the Prime Minister acknowledged that in the past many women retired on inadequate pensions and said that the Government would 'do its best' to make sure that women in their sixties were now alerted to their entitlements.

Commenting, Steve Webb said:

"I am delighted at this green light from the top of Government for my campaign. The Government holds records which would show exactly which women can benefit from this scheme, and I hope now that it will contact them with simple and clear information so that they can finally get the pensions to which they are entitled".

The MP said he would now be following up with a letter to the new Work and Pensions Secretary  offering to meet to discuss how the Prime Minister's pledge can now be implemented.

Notes:

a) the full text of Steve Webb's question and the Prime Minister's reply is
below:

Q11. [180929] Steve Webb (Northavon) (LD): The Department for Work and
Pensions holds records on tens of thousands of women in their 60s who would be eligible to boost their basic state pension under a very complicated scheme that most of them have never heard of. Will the Prime Minister ensure that the DWP simply tells those women what they are entitled to?

The Prime Minister: We will do what we can to ensure that women in their 60s have proper pension rights. As the hon. Gentleman knows, this is one of the areas where over many decades we have not done enough to secure rights for elderly women. Under the Pensions Bill, more women will get the basic state pension and will not have to have a smaller pension, as before, but we will try to do our best to ensure that women in their 60s get pension rights as well.


b) women who have gaps in their National Insurance record for one or more of the years from 1996/97 to 2001/02 can get a boost to their pension by filling those gaps on exceptionally favourable terms under a little-publicised scheme; many of these women have never been notified of the scheme; Steve Webb has prepared an information sheet which is available here.