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Older Women the Victims in Pension Form Fiasco
By Neasa MacErlean, The Observer
United Kingdom
July 10, 2005
Despite fears that spouses will lose out, the government is dragging its heels
Unwelcome news could be in store for women who have divorced since December 2000 and are expecting a share of their husband's pension when they retire. Cash warned last February that many divorce lawyers were making mistakes on court forms - known as pension information forms. Robin Ellison, chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds, was so concerned that he warned that women (as it usually is - though it would apply equally to men) could lose entitlements as a result.
The Department of Constitutional Affairs agreed to change the forms - but nothing has happened and it looks as if we may have to wait until December for any action.
'It's incredibly disappointing,' says Deborah Wilson of pension administrator MNPA. Thousands more spouses could have their pension entitlements messed up by then. The most common mistakes concern the valuation date of the pension and the size of the pension due (which should be expressed as a percentage in England, Wales and Northern Ireland). Older women - as they are closest to retirement - are, in effect, the guinea pigs and will be the first to find out that something has gone wrong.
Wales leads the way for over-60s
Wales appears to be leading the world with its 'Strategy for Older People in Wales' and the expected 2007 creation of the new post of commissioner for older people. 'The strategy document isn't just a glossy document that sits on shelves,' says the minister for older people, John Griffiths. 'It's rolled forward with an infrastructure and building blocks.'
The Welsh Assembly has given £10 million to get the strategy started and required all 22 Welsh local authorities to reflect the plans and introduce their own older people's champions.
First Minister Rhodri Morgan was grilled for two hours last month on progress. Initiatives include free bus travel across Wales, subsidies for IT clubs and training (as part of an attack on employment barriers), encouragement for good equity release schemes, free swimming, and lobbying Westminster on pensioner poverty issues.
The swimming venture is part of moves to encourage healthy lifestyles and could be extended to other areas such as gyms, says Griffiths. The initiative on equity release shows a willingness to engage with the private sector in a practical way to help produce safe products that change people's lives. These moves have been produced in conjunction with older people.
Wales has more elderly people than the rest of the country - with 22 per cent of its population over 60 (compared to 20 per cent for the UK) - and it is also more indebted than the rest of Britain.
The Welsh Assembly does not control Treasury issues and can only lobby the national government on concerns about pensioner incomes and poverty. But with limited control over the financial aspects of life, it is using its imagination and the novel device of asking older people themselves exactly what they want - and it is producing results.
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