When the contributory State Pension was introduced in the 1940s, it had a differential State Pension age (SPa) – 65 for men and 60 for women. In 1993, the then-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ken Clarke, announced that the Government would equalise the SPa at 65. This change would be phased in over ten years, starting in 2010.
In 2011, to ensure the sustainability of the State Pension system, the Coalition Government accelerated the equalisation of the SPa and pledged to raise the SPa to 66. This meant that the SPa for women would reach 65 in November 2018, and the increase from 65 to 66 would happen by October 2020.
While I appreciate constituents concerns about the equalisation of the SPa, had the Government not equalised the State Pension age, women who would be retiring today upon reaching the age of 60 would, on average, spend over 40 per cent of their adult lives in receipt of State Pension. These changes, made by Parliament after extensive debates, were about maintaining the right balance between sustainability of the State Pension, fairness between generations, and ensuring a dignified retirement in later life.
More broadly, the Government remains committed to ensuring that older people can live with the dignity and respect they deserve. I welcome the Government’s strong track record of protecting pensioners' incomes. Since 2010, there are 400,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty and pensioners are now the group least likely to be living in poverty. To deliver on the promise to provide dignity in retirement, the Government has maintained the Triple Lock in full for 2024-25. This means that on 6 April, the basic State Pension, new State Pension and Pension Credit standard minimum guarantee were uprated in line with September 2023 average earnings growth - 8.5 per cent.