Decision details

(i)          to note that hundreds of thousands of women had significant pension changes imposed on them by the Pensions Acts of 1995 and 2011 with little to no personal notification of the changes. In some cases, women had only two years notice of a six-year increase to their state pension age;

(ii)         to further note that many women born in the 1950's were living in hardship with their retirement plans having been significantly changed. Many of these women were already out of the labour market, caring for elderly relatives, providing childcare for grandchildren, or suffer discrimination in the workplace so struggle to find employment. Women born in this decade were suffering financially;

(iii)        to understand that these women had paid their tax and national insurance with the expectation that they would be financially secure when reaching 60 and that it was not the pension age itself that was in dispute - it was widely accepted that women and men should retire at the same time;

(iv)        to agree that the rise in the women's state pension age had been too rapid and had happened without sufficient notice being given to the women affected, leaving women with no time to make alternative arrangements;

(v)         to call upon the UK Government to make fair transitional state pension arrangements for all women born in the 1950s, who had unfairly borne the burden of the increase to the State Pension Age (SPA) with lack of appropriate notification;

(vi)        to instruct the Chief Executive to write to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to outline the council’s position;

(vii)      to note Section 24 of the Scotland Act 2016 amends the Scotland Act 1998, allowing the Scottish Parliament to introduce Discretionary payments to top up reserved benefits to an individual who is entitled to a reserved benefit and appears to require financial assistance in addition to any amount the individual receives by way of reserved benefit;

(viii)     to note the 1998 Act, as amended, defines reserved benefit as, “a benefit which was to any extent a reserved matter;

(ix)        to note that the 1998 Act (as amended by Section 28 of the Scotland Act 2016) allows the Scottish Parliament to create new benefits which could include WASPI women; and

(x)         therefore, Council agreed to instruct the Chief Executive to write to the First Minister urging the Scottish Government to use the powers of the Scottish Parliament to provide financial assistance to WASPI women should the UK Government fail to act.