Women losing out on state pension but don't blame Altmann

The problem with being a critic of the pensions industry, turned pensions minister, is that people will insist on flagging up what you said before.

Pensions minister Ros Altmann, who was a consumer champion, felt the force of her own words this week when she was questioned in the House of Lords about whether there will be compensation for older women who have been hit with two state pension age (SPA) rises.
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The first rise saw their pension age equalise with men, increasing from 60 to 65, and then the general increases in longevity has seen it go up further to 66.

Altmann confirmed that these women will not be liable to any sort of compensation.

The other peers took greater pleasure in reading excerpts from Altmann's previous column for Saga magazine, which is aimed at over-55s. In it, she criticises the government for failing to understand the lives of the women affected by the rises.

She didn't do much better on Twitter where older women effectively branded her a traitor for speaking up for them but failing to do what they want when she reached power.

I do understand where the individuals affected are coming from, I can see how it looks like Altmann has forgotten about them. But equally I have sympathy for Altmann and they are overlooking the good work she did as a consumer champion.

She was the one who won a concession from government that ensures there is an 18-month limit on state pension age rises. If she hadn't won that, these women would be facing a longer wait for their state pension.

Unfortunately, the women who were caught up in the rises were born at a time when longevity is increasing, pension costs are higher, and the government is under increasing financial pressure. None of those things are Altmann's fault.

The pension failings are the fault of successive governments to tackle the crisis around longevity and the fact that everyone would have to work longer. Hiking the SPA is not exactly a vote winner but it needed to be done, and should have been done a long time ago.

And in fact, the equalisation changes, which moved women's SPA in line with men's, has been in the offing since the 1995 Pensions Act. That's not to say these women should have known about pension legislation or even known their retirement age but the fact that it wasn't made explicit to them at the time is not the fault of Altmann, it is the fault of her predecessors.