Hundreds of women attend meeting in Bishop Auckland to oppose the rising pension age

Bishop Auckland Town Hall was packed with women affected by the changes, some of whom only had 18 months’ notice and will now have to work years longer than they expected to.

It is estimated some women will miss out on over £40,000 in pension payments.

Helen Goodman MP

Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman, who organised the meeting, said: “Women born in the 1950s are missing out on pension payments because the Government has speeded up the pension age from 60 to 66.

“Some people only got 18 months’ notice of this and it is not enough time to make plans.

“People have paid their National Insurance contributions and expected to get their pension, then, all of a sudden, they were told: ‘no’.

“The Government is being very inflexible so we are campaigning for a change to the law for people to be able to retire earlier and people to be able to get benefits to make up their incomes in pension credit.

“We are campaigning for long term reform so we can have a flexible retirement age.

“So many people have turned up today and these women are pretty furious about it.”

The meeting was attended by members of Durham Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) group, including former nurse Sylvia O’Brien.

Ms O’Brien, 64, from Spennymoor said: “We hadn’t had any notice at all and I expected to retire at 60.

“When I reached that I was told I could not retire until I was 64-and-a-half.

“It was pushed up, and I have worked all my life since I was 15 years old.

“We have paid all of this money in. It has been a worry.”

Legislation passed from 1995 onwards meant that the age at which women receive their state pension has been increasing to bring it up to 65, the same age as men.

The original aim was that by 2020, both men and women would retire at 65.

Changes introduced by the Conservative-led Coalition Government, in 2011, accelerated the changes and increased the state pension age for a second time for women born after April 6, 1950.

Some of the women affected have seen their pension age change from 60 to 66 without time to put alternative plans in place.

Bernice Wood

Self-employed taxi driver Bernice Wood, 61, from Bishop Auckland, said: “I would have liked to have been given the opportunity to retire at 60 but I have to work until I am 66.

“I wanted to live abroad when I got to retirement but that is on hold.”

Daphne Walton, 59, who runs her own business, said the changes mean she will have to work for another six years.

She said: “Quite frankly, physically, I don’t think I will be able to work for another six years. I do not think it is possible.

“I appreciate the pension age had to change, but there was no notification and there was no time to put other measures in place.”

It is estimated some 180,000 women in the North-East make up the 2.6 million across the country now facing a longer working life.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “The decision to equalise the state pension age between men and women was made over 20 years ago and achieves a long-overdue move towards gender equality.

“There are no plans to change the transitional arrangements already in place.

“Women retiring today can still expect to receive the state pension for 26 years on average, several years longer than men.”