personal finance

State pension age change: 'Ashamed' 50s woman 'humiliated' after using food banks


Backto60 campaigner Carol May recounted the heartbreaking situations she has been in as she waits for her pension. The 65-year-old said her friends have been given her food as she revealed she has had to use food banks. Campaigners fighting pension age discrimination say the Government is treating 3.8 million women unfairly as they are being forced to wait up to six years longer than planned for their state pension.

The activists launched a fresh legal challenge to appeal the decision this month after an unsuccessful High Court battle.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, Ms May said: “Even the thought of coming up here today, I’m no longer good at travelling on the train on my own.

“It sounds stupid to me, I’ve always travelled on trains.

“My mother worked in London, I’ve travelled on trains up to London since I was a child and on my own.

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“But the anxiety keeps coming up about it.

“The anxiety around money is huge and I now can’t see that I’m even going to get my pension which will be in just over a year’s time, I will get my pension finally.

“It’s so tiny. It’s only £8,600.

“Nobody can live on that. You might just about be able to exist if you’re lucky.

The retirement age for women rose to 65 to bring it into line with men and will go up to 66 by 2020, and 67 by 2028.

But 50s women are seeking compensation as they claim the alteration has been poorly implemented, leaving them distressed and unable to prepare.

Another campaigner, Deena Wild, claimed women born in the 1950s and 1960s are now “starving” after the retirement age change.

She believes their quality of life has decreased as some are reportedly living in food banks or sofa-surfing.



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