Woman 'wasn't notified' her State Pension age had been hiked six years

A WASPI woman being forced to keep working at age 67 says she is "barely making ends meet". The WASPI scandal has seen women of State Pension age demand payouts from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over historic and long-running "injustices".

And one woman Marion Williams says she didn't get any notification that her State Pension age would increase from 60 to 66. Now, despite claiming at age 67, she still has to work several temporary jobs just to make ends meet, reports i.

Marion, from the North East of England, worked as a secondary school teacher for 12 years but she gave this up as she suffered from severe migraines, leaving with a small pension pot of around £3,000 a year. Aside from her teacher's pension, she has just £10,000 in total pension pots.

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But because of her current wage, she can't claim Pension Creidt from the DWP. She said to the newspaper: “I live in a flat which is a listed building and I had a £16,000 roof repair bill about six years ago which wiped out my savings.

“The flat itself has a back gas boiler and single glazed windows with great chunks in them, as you have to have ventilation for the pilot light. I haven’t been able to put the heating on for six years because I would just be heating the air outside and still be freezing. So I just sit here when it’s cold wrapped in my dressing gown.”

Morgan Vine, head of policy and influencing at Independent Age, said: “Many older people living in financial hardship tell us they feel ignored and like their voices and experiences are not represented in society. There is a damaging myth that everyone in later life is financially secure but in reality, at Independent Age we speak to thousands of older people on a low income who are living in poverty and making dangerous cuts to their budget because they have no other choice."