division_name: State Pension Age: Women
motion: <p class="indent" pid="c366.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">That this House calls on the Government to improve transitional arrangements for women born on or after <phrase class="date" code="2017-04-06">6 April</phrase> 1951 who have been adversely affected by the acceleration of the increase to the state pension age.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c369.1/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;to avoid a risk to the well-being of an individual.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c370.8/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;We will also ensure that the state pension age reflects increases in life expectancy, while protecting each generation fairly.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c371.1/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Support an end to the unfair treatment of women pensioners&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c372.0/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;In developing its proposals for implementing the change the Government has paid particular attention to the need to give people enough time to plan ahead and to phase the change in gradually&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c372.2/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;to provide clear and accurate information about what pensions will provide so that people will understand how much they can expect at retirement before it&#8217;s too late to do something about it.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c373.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The national insurance fund provides security for those contributory benefits. It is ring-fenced and cannot be used for other Government expenditure.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2017-10-21">21 October</phrase> 2003; Vol. 411, c. 231WH.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c374.1/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;If you want to know more about the changes to State Pension age, please see Pensions for women&#8212;Your guide&#8230; See page 10 for details about how you can get a copy of this guide.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c374.1/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;The Government has committed not to change the legislation relating to State Pension age for those people who are within 10 years of reaching it. This provides these individuals with the certainty they need to plan for the future&#8230;We recognise the importance of ensuring people are aware of any changes to their State Pension age&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c374.1/12" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I realise it is not going down well&#8221;.&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2017-07-05">5 July</phrase> 2017; Vol. 626, c. 143WH.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c374.1/15" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;a line of pensions ministers with no interest in pensions&#8221;.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c376.4/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;In 1917 King George V sent the first telegrams to those celebrating their 100th birthday. 24 were sent that year. In 2016 around 6,000 people will have received a card from Her Majesty the Queen. In 2050, we expect over 56,000 people to reach this milestone.</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c376.4/4" pwmotiontext="yes">Three factors are at play here: a growing population; an ageing population as the Baby Boomers retire; and an unprecedented increase in life expectancy. A baby girl born in 2017 can expect to live to be 94 years and a boy to be 91. By 2047 it could well be 98 and 95 respectively&#8230;The world of the Third Age is now a very different one, in which those lucky enough to get the State Pension will on average spend almost a third of their adult life in retirement, a proportion never before reached.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c377.3/4" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;is limited to providing help with &#8216;short term needs&#8217;, and those needs must require to be met to avoid a risk to a person&#8217;s wellbeing. That would not readily allow assistance to the majority of women most affected by the acceleration of increase in their State Pension Age. Their needs and the risks to their well-being would have to be assessed individually.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c384.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;If we fail to pass this motion, we will be saying that those women are an acceptable casualty on the way to equality, and we cannot accept invidious treatment in the name of equality.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2017-01-07">7 January</phrase> 2016; Vol. 604, c. 503.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c389.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Any surplus of NICs over social security benefits in any one year&#8230;is not&#8230;an extra resource available to spend.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2017-03-05">5 March</phrase> 2008; Vol. 472, c. 2605W.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c389.0/5" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;what assessment he has made of the merits of using future national insurance fund surpluses to fund an increase in the state pension.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c389.0/7" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Any increase in the basic state pension has a cumulative impact on Government spending going forward. The Government consider the short-term use of the surplus on the national insurance fund in this way to be unsustainable in the long term.&#8221;&#8212;[Official Report, <phrase class="date" code="2017-02-10">10 February</phrase> 2009; Vol. 487, c. 1852W.]</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c394.3/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;has been too little too late for many women, especially given increases in the state pension age have been accelerated at relatively short notice. Many thousands of women justifiably feel aggrieved.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c395.0/3" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;Douglas Ross must do the right thing for these women&#8221;,</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c395.0/6" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;I think Guy Fawkes had a good idea.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="indent" pid="c406.0/2" pwmotiontext="yes">&#8220;That this House calls on the Government to improve transitional arrangements for women born on or after <phrase class="date" code="2017-04-06">6 April</phrase> 1951 who have been adversely affected by the acceleration of the increase to the state pension age.&#8221;</p>
  
  <p class="italic" pid="c409.2/5" pwmotiontext="yes">The House divided:</p>
  
  <p pid="c409.2/6" pwmotiontext="yes">Ayes 288, Noes 0.</p>