A key area of the FWN work has been to raise awareness of the gendered nature of UK pension policy and to campaign for improvements in women’s pension entitlement. The Fabian Women’s Network has been an active part of the Women and Pensions Network co-ordinated by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (previously the Equal Opportunities Commission) which has been widely credited with developing a consensus on pensions reform and working closely with Ministers on delivering this. A particular issue that the W&P Network lobbied was extending the ‘buy-back’ period for women who had not made sufficient National Insurance contributions to qualify for a state pension, from six to twelve years. FWN Committee member Alexandra Kemp was interviewed on this topic for the Women’s Parliamentary Radio website http://www.wpradio.co.uk/.
The Network has also held two events on this matter. In October 2005 we held a seminar titled “Tackling equality & poverty in retirement: a fair deal for women?” In May 2006 John Hutton MP, then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions gave a keynote speech on how the Government’s proposals for pensions reform would affect women at an event held by FWN and chaired by political commentator Jackie Ashley.
