Iain Duncan Smith rejects cross-party pressure on women’s pensions

Work and pensions secretary under fire from backbenchers over plans to fast-track changes to women’s pension age Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, has come under repeated fire from government backbenchers over plans to fast-track changes to the pension age that will leave 500,000 women waiting more than an extra year before they can retire with a state pension. But he refused to bow to increasing pressure from all sides of the Commons, saying there would be no change to the timetable and conceding only that he was “willing to work to get this transition right”. Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs joined Labour members in arguing against the changes, which would see the state pension age for women equalised with men at 65 in 2018, then everyone moving to 66 by 2020. The plan leaves half a million women born in 1953 and 54 with just seven years’ notice that they will have to wait more than a year longer to collect their state pension. Of those, 33,000 will have to wait a full 24 months. The Liberal Democrats Jo Swinson, Annette Brooke and Jenny Willott as well as Conservatives James Gray, Eleanor Laing and Benedict Gummer all urged the government to rethink its plans. There has been intense debate in recent days about whether the government was preparing to make concessions on the plans. Labour has claimed that the move breaches a coalition agreement promise not to make any further changes to the pension age for women before 2020. Duncan Smith acknowledged for the first time during the Commons debate that they had broken the coalition agreement – but said they had been forced to do so after receiving legal advice. Duncan Smith said: “Responsible government is not always easy government. It involves commitment, tough decisions and a willingness to stay the course. We will not change from that, we will stay the course. We will secure our children’s future. “I recognise we need to implement this fairly and manage the transition smoothly. I can hear the specific concerns about a relatively small number of women and I am willing to work to get this transition right.” Liam Byrne, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said the plans would “single out” the women affected, “and say to them, ‘You know your plans for the future? Well you can put those in the bin’.” The head of the union Unison, Dave Prentis, will tell his annual conference in Manchester that women are facing a double burden on pensions, with the government fast-tracking the state pension changes at the same time as proposing radical changes to public sector pensions, the majority of which are collected by women. Prentis warned last week that the government could face the biggest strikes since the general strike of 1926 over changes to make public sector workers work longer. David Cameron ruled out any fundamental changes to the plans for public sector pensions. He said there was “no question of climbing down”. “We are not aiming for confrontation, we don’t want confrontation but we have to reform public service pensions to make them long-term affordable,” he said. “We owe that to taxpayers at a time of great difficulty with public finances that we inherited. But we are looking to a system that is a good public sector pension system where people who work in the public sector can have confidence they have very strong pensions.” Crucial negotiations between ministers and the unions are expected to resume on Monday, ahead of a walk-out next Thursday, 30 June, by three unions. That strike is expected to bring many schools, colleges, ports, courts and job centres to a standstill. New research has given the first gauge of current public support for strikes, revealing that a slight majority of people support industrial action to protect pay and conditions. The poll by Populus revealed that 54% of people said they supported the right to strike to protect pay and conditions, but fewer – 46% – would support strikes against the government’s general direction. There would be most sympathy with the uniformed services if they strike. Some 60% would be sympathetic with striking nurses, 55% with striking fire-fighters and 38% for striking teachers compared with just 17% who would be sympathetic to striking flight attendants, 29% of central government workers and 28% of train drivers. Public sector pensions Public services policy Pensions Iain Duncan Smith Women Polly Curtis guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 20, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.