Asked by: Helen Goodman (Labour - Bishop Auckland)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many women born in the 1950s and affected by the change of the state pension age received less than five years notice of that change.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The Pensions Acts of 1995, 2007 and 2011 were fully debated in Parliament. The government undertook wide public consultation before the passage of the Acts. This included publishing Green and White Papers. The passage of the Acts and the changes they brought in were widely reported in the media throughout this period.
The changes to State Pension age that the Pensions Act 1995 brought in started to come into effect from April 2010 giving a notice period of at least 15 years for those changes.
In addition, the DWP and others took extensive steps in the years following the 1995 Act to further communicate the changes to women born in the 1950s, as well as all others affected, by means such as leaflets, State Pension forecasts, media articles and personal letters.