The following Notice of Motion submitted under Paragraph 14 of the Council Procedure Rules will be proposed by Cllr Swales and seconded by Cllr Beavers:
“The Council calls upon the Government to make fair transitional state pension arrangements for all women born on or after 6th April 1951, who have unfairly borne the burden of the increase to the State Pension Age (SPA) with lack of appropriate notification.
Hundreds of thousands of women had significant pension changes imposed on them by the pension Acts of 1995 and 2011 with little or no personal notification of the changes. Some women had only two years notice of a six-year increase to their state pension age. It should be noted that Wyre residents have been disproportionately affected by these two Acts compared to other authorities. Its proportion of residents in the 60-64, and 65-69 age groups is significantly higher than the overall proportion in each of Lancashire, the North West, and England.
Many women born in the 1950s are living in hardship. Retirement plans have been shattered with devastating consequences. Many of these women are already out of the labour market, caring for elderly relatives, providing childcare for grandchildren, or suffer discrimination in the workplace so struggle to find employment.
Women born in this decade are suffering financially. These women have worked hard, raised families and paid their tax and national insurance with the expectation that they would be financially secure when reaching 60. It is not the pension age itself that is the dispute; it is widely accepted that women and men should retire at the same time.
The issue is that the rise in the women's state pension age has been too rapid and has happened without sufficient notice being given to the women affected, leaving women with no time to make alternative arrangements.
Therefore, the Council requests the Chief Executive to write to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Work & Pensions to call upon the Government to reconsider transitional arrangements for women born on or after 6th April 1951, so that women do not live in hardship due to pension changes they were not told about until it was too late to make alternative arrangements.”
Minutes:
Councillors Swales, Beavers, Longton and Stirzaker submitted a Notice of Motion, under Paragraph 14 of the Council Procedure Rules, on changes to the state pension age for women, as set out under agenda item 14.
Cllr Swales proposed and Cllr Beavers seconded the motion, but in doing so slightly altered it, by inserting the words “in the 1950’s” after the word “born” in line second line of the first paragraph of the motion, to make it clear that the motion referred to the impact of the transitional pension age arrangements for women born in the 1950’s on or after 6 April 1951, so that the motion read as follows:
“The Council calls upon the Government to make fair transitional state pension arrangements for all women born in the 1950’s, on or after 6th April 1951, who have unfairly borne the burden of the increase to the State Pension Age (SPA) with lack of appropriate notification.
Hundreds of thousands of women had significant pension changes imposed on them by the pension Acts of 1995 and 2011 with little or no personal notification of the changes. Some women had only two years notice of a six-year increase to their state pension age. It should be noted that Wyre residents have been disproportionately affected by these two Acts compared to other authorities. Its proportion of residents in the 60-64, and 65-69 age groups is significantly higher than the overall proportion in each of Lancashire, the North West, and England.
Many women born in the 1950s are living in hardship. Retirement plans have been shattered with devastating consequences. Many of these women are already out of the labour market, caring for elderly relatives, providing childcare for grandchildren, or suffer discrimination in the workplace so struggle to find employment.
Women born in this decade are suffering financially. These women have worked hard, raised families and paid their tax and national insurance with the expectation that they would be financially secure when reaching 60. It is not the pension age itself that is the dispute; it is widely accepted that women and men should retire at the same time.
The issue is that the rise in the women's state pension age has been too rapid and has happened without sufficient notice being given to the women affected, leaving women with no time to make alternative arrangements.
Therefore, the Council requests the Chief Executive to write to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Work & Pensions to call upon the Government to reconsider transitional arrangements for women born on or after 6th April 1951, so that women do not live in hardship due to pension changes they were not told about until it was too late to make alternative arrangements.”
Cllr Henderson proposed and Cllr Bowen seconded an amendment to delete and insert words to the motion, so that it read as follows:
“This Council asks that the Government undertakes an urgent review of the transitional state pension arrangements for all women aged between 60 and 69. Wyre has a high number of residents within this age bracket. Limited notice of the changes was given and many of these women were unable to make alternative arrangements prior to the changes taking effect, possibly leading to financial hardship.
This Council requests that the Chief Executive writes to the Prime Minister and the secretary of State for Work and Pensions to call upon the Government to do all it can to mitigate the impact of these changes.”
During the course of the ensuing debate Cllr Henderson agreed, with the consent of Council, to accept an alteration suggested by Cllr Stirzaker, to insert the words “born on or after 6th April 1951,” after the word “women” in the second line of the amendment.
The amendment, including the agreed alteration, was CARRIED (by 22 votes to 6)
Cllr Fail then proposed and Cllr Beavers seconded a further amendment to add to the end of the amendment which had been carried, words from the final sentence from the original motion, as follows:
“so that women do not live in hardship due to pension changes they were not told about until it was too late to make alternative arrangements"
However, the amendment was LOST (by 17 votes to 10)
The substantive motion, i.e., the amended version of the original motion, was then APPROVED (unanimously), as follows:
“This Council asks that the Government undertakes an urgent review of the transitional state pension arrangements for all women born on or after 5th April 1951, aged between 60 and 69. Wyre has a high number of residents within this age bracket. Limited notice of the changes was given and many of these women were unable to make alternative arrangements prior to the changes taking effect, possibly leading to financial hardship.
This Council requests that the Chief Executive writes to the Prime Minister and the secretary of State for Work and Pensions to call upon the Government to do all it can to mitigate the impact of these changes.”