| Women demand for fair-play in state pension system |
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Fair pensions are something all desire at retirement; however, they seem to be getting just as difficult to attain, especially for women.
Age Concern and Fawcett, women charity groups, warned in a report that the 50-year old pension system had now become obsolete and needed to be refurbished for efficacy and fairness to women. With the government proposing to extend the basic state pension age to 65 by April 2010, women will have to work much longer than men to qualify for the basic state pension as both men and women will have to make the same contributions to be draw the basic pension.
The report found that merely 16% of the recently retired women had been given a full basic state pension as compared to 78% of men drawing the full state pension. Age Concern and Fawcett attributed this discrepancy between the two genders to the poor coverage jobs women generally got, in addition to the time women had to devote to raise a family. The groups alleged that the current pension system completely ignored such fundamental factors concerning women and did not consider working patterns of women at all. What’s more, it was poor women pensioners who would have to bear the final brunt and sadly at least 20% single women were living in poverty at present.
Both the groups, nonetheless, have suggested in their report a list of effective as well as economical reforms that would render the pension system fairer to women and would also provide adequate protection to poor pensioners regarding their entitlements and rights.
Although the government accepted that women were being unduly targeted by the pension system, it appeared quite nonchalant when the question of an action arose. Head of Public Affairs at Age Concern England, Michelle Mitchell, commented, “Many women are angry that the system fails to give them a decent income and it is an issue that is likely to affect their votes on polling day.”
Posted
on : Sat, 30 Apr 2005 22:00 GMT | Pensions News
By : Salim Patel
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