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<p>Successive Governments have made necessary decisions to equalise and increase the
State Pension age. State Pension age reform has focused on maintaining the right balance
between sustainability of State Pension, equality and fairness between generations
in the face of demographic change.</p><p>Even after equalising women’s State Pension
age with men’s, women will spend on average around 2 years more in receipt of their
state pension because of their longer life expectancy. If we had not equalised State
Pension age, women would be expected to spend on average over 40 per cent of their
adult lives in retirement.</p><p> </p><p>During the passage of the 2011 Act, the Government
listened to the concerns of those affected and this is why we introduced a concession
worth over £1 billion in order to limit the impact on those women who would be most
affected by the changes. This concession reduced the proposed increase in State Pension
age for over 450,000 men and women, and means that no woman will see her pension age
change by more than 18 months, relative to the 1995 Act timetable.</p><p> </p><p>For
people who simply can’t work, our welfare system will continue to provide a strong
safety net, as it does for people of all ages now. Any women experiencing hardship,
including problems such as unemployment, disability, and coping with caring responsibilities,
can already claim support from the welfare system. The Government is committed to
supporting the vulnerable and spends over £50 billion a year on benefits to support
disabled people and people with health conditions.</p><p> </p><p>The new State Pension
is more generous for many women. Over three million women stand to gain an average
of £550 extra per year by 2030 as a result of recent State Pension reforms.</p>
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