The state pension age is gradually rising, with it previously having stood at 60 for women and 65 for men. In November 2018, state pension age parity for both men and women was reached.

However, a number of campaign groups have claimed that they were not given sufficient warning of the changes - resulting in women not having sufficient time to financially prepare for their

retirement. This week, a judicial review, which was sought by the campaign group BackTo60, into the changes to the state pension age for women will open.

Meanwhile, the campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) claim that the way the increases were brought in has impacted hundreds of thousands of women born in the 1950s -

The campaigners explain that they don’t disagree with the equalisation, but are campaigning against the process in which the changes were made.

“Significant changes to the age we receive our state pension have been imposed upon us with a lack of appropriate notification, with little or no notice and much faster than we were promised

– some of us have been hit by more than one increase,” reads a statement on the WASPI website.

A Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “The government decided more than 20 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, and this has been clearly communicated.

People are living longer so we need to raise the age at which all of us can draw a state pension so it is sustainable now and for future generations

“People are living longer so we need to raise the age at which all of us can draw a State Pension so it is sustainable now and for future generations.”

The DWP say the government has communicated the changes to state pension age, including campaigns and writing directly to those affected.

Between April 2009 and March 2011, the DWP sent letters to 1.2 million women born between April 6 1950 and April 5 1953, informing them of their State Pension age under the 1995 Pensions

Act.

And, between 2012 and 2013, the DWP sent more than five million people letters, following legislation which accelerated the equalisation of state pension age between men and women, and

bringing forward the rise of the state pension age to 66.

A conclusion of the Communication of state pension age changes report, carried out by the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee and published in March 2016, addresses the matter of

communication and awareness.

It states: “We will never know how many women did not know, or could not be reasonably expected to know, that their state pension age was increasing.

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“What is apparent with hindsight is that previous governments could have done a lot better in communicating the changes.

“Well into this decade far too many affected women were unaware of the equalisation of state pension age at 65 legislated for in 1995.

“While the last and current Governments have done more to communicate state pension age changes than their predecessors, this has been too little too late for many women, especially given

increases in the state pension age have been accelerated at relatively short notice.

This week, the High Court will look into the alleged mishandling of raising the state pension age for women.

The government is set to continue increasing state pension age, citing the rise in life expectancy.

According to the plans, state pension age for both men and women will reach 66 in October.

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