Yvonne’s story

18.04.11 - Yvonne

I left school to begin my working life at the age of 15. At this time the state retirement/pension age for women was 60.

When I had my first Daughter at the age of 22 I was unable to return to full time work due to childcare issues so I took on part time work to fit in around my husbands work.

During the next few years I had 2 more children. Money was very tight I needed to work to keep our heads above water, so I continued to work part time. At one time I was doing 3 different jobs, an early morning cleaning job before my husband left for work, a couple of hours in the middle of the day while one of my daughters was in full time school, another at nursery part time and a friend looked after my youngest. I then had another cleaning job at tea time when my husband returned home from work.

When I was in my mid 30s, in the 1990s we were told the age for women’s retirement would be increased to 65, but it would be increased in stages from 2010 to 2020, I was not happy about it but this change was a long way off for me.

At the age of 35 I returned to full time work with my present employer.

I was invited to join the company final salary pension scheme, at last I was able to see a good future for myself and looked forward to a good income when I retired.

In 2010 my company told us they were closing down our Final Salary Pension. I had been in the scheme for 19 years and had the scheme remained open I would have had a very good lump sum and monthly pension by the age of 65.

In fact I had planned to reduce my hours when I reached the age of 60 to help my Daughter with her childcare so she could get back into work as she is unable to return to work now due to the cost of childcare for her 2 children.

The good pension and lump sum I had been looking forward to has now been taken away from me.

I will be 55 this year, and now this ConDem government has decided they want me to work until I am 66. I have worked since the age of 15, having only 10 or 12 weeks at home following the birth of my 3 children. I work in manufacturing doing a manual job, I have arthritis and a few other medical problems. At times now I struggle to cope with my work, as I get older I expect I will struggle more. If I am unable to carry out my duties at work I will be at risk of my employer dismissing me on the grounds of capability. If that happens before I can draw my pension how will I cope financially, who else will employ me, how will I survive without an income? I am now frightened about my future, because all I can see is an old age of financial hardship after a lifetime of working. How many thousands of women like myself are this government condemning to a dismal future. These plans do not give us enough time to plan and save for a half decent retirement.

Do you want to support our campaign to STOP these unfair pension changes that will hit people like Yvonne so hard? If so, sign the petition now.