Millions of mothers who have stayed at home to raise their families will miss out on a full pension after the Government did a u-turn on pensions reform.
The u-turn was only picked up by a question in the House of Lords. The Government had stated in July that it agreed to a change which would allow women who had not paid a sufficient amount of National Insurance contributions due to taking time out of work to look after children to buy back up to nine years of missing payments before retirement.
The move was met with anger by campaigners. Anna Pearson, policy manager at Help the Aged, said: "In what amounts to an abuse of Parliament, the government has reneged on a promise to help millions of women and carers reaching state pension age between now and 2010. The decision... is effectively a stab in the back for women and carers," she added.
The Department for Work and Pensions said poorer pensioners would not have benefited from being able to make extra payments.
"Women claiming on their husband's contributions would not benefit unless they were able to increase their own entitlement above 60% of their spouse's pension," a spokesman added.
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