Why are 1950s women so angry about the state pension age change?

Analysis: As thousands of women in their fifties and sixties prepare to march against changes to their state pension age, May Bulman asks what they are hoping to achieve

The protest will see thousands of women march from Hyde Park to Parliament Square in a bid to ‘set the record straight for any doubters’ and create a ‘pressure point’ for government (Waspi)

Thousands of women in their fifties and sixties are getting ready to march across London to voice their frustration over changes to the female state pension age. Their anger has, until now, gone largely unheard – but the widespread impact is beginning to show.

On the face of it, increasing the pension age for women from 60 to 66 – to the same age as men – is, as the government proclaims, “a long-overdue move towards gender equality”. But what is infuriating for so many is the fact that the plans were pushed forward in 2011 with little advance notice for those affected.

Indeed, former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann, who resigned over the issue in 2016, revealed last week that warnings which predicted the changes would leave thousands in hardship went ignored “at all levels of government”.