SNP slam government for '˜gross misjudgment' over pension age

The government has been accused of 'downgrading' pensions at a 'critical' point in a campaign to compensate thousands of women hit by rapid increases in the pension age.

Too steep: MP Ian Blackford. Picture: Contributed

Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) is campaigning on behalf of women born in the 1950s who face an additional six-year wait for a state pension with as little as two years’ notice.

The SNP’s pensions spokesman Ian Blackford MP said the increase in the female state pension age to 66 by 2019 was “too steep” and claimed it was a “gross misjudgment” to give responsibility for pensions to a junior minister.

WASPI campaigners accept the need to raise the retirement age, but claim the changes have been mismanaged and poorly communicated.

Blackford said it would be “very difficult for an under-secretary to champion the cause of women that are so badly affected”.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Work and Pensions said the issue remained “a key priority”.