State pension age changes: Monthly necessities ‘now a luxury’ for retired divorcees | Personal Finance | Finance
Living out a luxury life in retirement is expensive, but many women in the UK are unable to get the bare necessities when living on a single income. Angela Madden from the WASPI campaign has warned of the turbulent world of retired divorcees, suggesting one change that could help working divorcees face the same problems.
The financial backlash of a divorce can last long after the divorce itself is finalised.
Finance director of the WASPI, Women Against State Pension Inequality, Angela Madden shared her insights from the campaign, noting that: “Women living on their own are definitely in a much worse position than women living with partners.”
Ms Madden said divorced women hit by the state pension age changes for women, which previously stood at 60 but is now currently at 66 and rising in line with men, have encountered even more of a financial burden.
She told Express.co.uk: “We have people in the WASPI campaign whose divorce settlements at the time with their husbands were based on a state pension age of 60.”
While these women may have thought their retirement would be sorted due to with the settlements that had been arranged at the time of their divorce, many are now unable to make ends meet due to the increase in state pension age.
Pension share orders were first introduced in the year 2000 as a way to equally split pension funds during a divorce regardless of the financial contribution between the parties.
This meant that stay at home mums could get divorced without facing their older years spent in poverty.
However, only 12 percent of divorce settlements since 2000 have used these orders.
Ms Madden noted that the reason for this may be that the women don’t in fact have knowledge of the order: “When these women weren’t aware of the pension changes, neither were some family lawyers. So they got a rough deal with their settlement.
“If they knew about it they would use it.”
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Ms Madden noted that fully utilising pension share orders “could make it a lot better” for women currently getting divorced as it could ensure they avoid all financial depravity that many women of the WASPI campaign are facing now.
Ms Madden said: “We know women who have to make decisions based on their limited income, really difficult spending decisions.”
While many working age people may not even notice the bill at the end of the month, Ms Madden noted that one of these “difficult spending decisions” is whether they can afford the internet.
The internet is a modern necessity and very little can be done without it, but these women often end up going without it and incurring further expenses.
Ms Madden explained the disheartening situation: “Because it’s a monthly bill so they have to decide: can they afford that or do they want their heating on or do they need to spend the money on food?
These initiatives would prove worthless for these women as they would not be able to afford the internet bill regardless of how accessible it is.
Ms Madden commented: “Make it more affordable, make it so that we can have it or sort out the problems with pensions.
“The problem is getting worse rather than better and that has been exacerbated significantly by the pandemic because of course all the libraries were shut down.”
Additionally, a lot of the single, pre-pension age women were working in the sectors that were greatly impacted by the pandemic.
Now, even though these same sectors are “crying out for workers”, the women cannot return to work as the costs are simply too high.
Ms Madden explained: “Women living on their own, going out at night and can’t afford to run a car would have to walk to and from work. It’s not jobs that they can do. They would feel too vulnerable.”
A DWP spokesperson said: “We recognise people are facing pressures with the cost of living, which is why we are taking action worth more than £4.2bn. We’re putting an average of £1,000 more per year into the pockets of working families on Universal Credit, increasing the minimum wage by 6.6% and supporting vulnerable households through initiatives such as the £500m Household Support Fund, Warm Home Discount, Winter Fuel Payments and Cold Weather Payments.
“The Government decided over 25 years ago that it was going to make the state pension age the same for men and women as a long-overdue move towards gender equality. Raising State Pension age in line with life expectancy changes has been the policy of successive administrations over many years.”
