ERITH and Thamesmead MP Teresa Pearce has been raising the plight of women who will have to wait longer than they anticipated, to receive their pension.

Ms Pearce says the accelerated timetable adopted by the government will see thousands of women born between October 1953 and March 1955, having to wait up to two years longer before they qualify for their pension.

Ms Pearce told a Parliamentary debate in the House of Commons last week: “These women have worked hard all their lives, paid National Insurance contributions and already made plans for their retirement.”

She accused the government of unfairly moving the goalposts at the last minute by accelerating the timetable to increase the pension age for women.

Ms Pearce said: “The women are not being given enough time to make alternative arrangements and they rightly feel they are being robbed of their pensions.

“They don’t deserve to be treated this way.”