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Is it any wonder women like Maggie had no idea that their state pension age was rising? Government is blasted for 'shambolic' awareness campaign featuring Monopoly boards and dogs on beaches

By Fiona Parker For The Daily Mail22:01 16 Jul 2019, updated 08:03 19 Jul 2019



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Women's state pension age rose from 60 to 65 - and will be 66 by late next year





Millions of pounds spent on baffling newspaper and magazine advertisements 





Two women took the Department for Work and Pensions  to the High Court





They argue that raising their pension age was age and sex discrimination 



Maggie Briley, 64, pictured, believed she would get her pension four years ago and is one of 3.8million women born in the 1950s who may not have received 'adequate warning' that their pension age was rising

Money Mail today lays bare the shambolic attempts by the Government to warn women about the rise in state pension age.

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Millions of pounds were spent on a series of baffling newspaper and magazine advertisements, featuring dogs and Monopoly boards, that appeared in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Whether or not 3.8million women born in the 1950s received adequate warning they would retire up to six years later than expected is currently at the centre of legal action.

Two women — Julie Delve, 61, and Karen Glynn, 62 — took the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to the High Court, arguing that raising their pension age was age and sex discrimination.

Those affected say they have lost out on as much as £50,000 owing to the change. Crucially, they say they were not given enough notice to prepare financially for the years they would need to cope without the state pension.

Many women had already gone part-time or given up work altogether by the time they realised they would not get their pension at 60.

At last month's hearing, Michael Mansfield QC produced internal government documents to prove it was known there was 'widespread ignorance' among many women about the threat to their pensions. A final judgment is due within weeks.



The plans, to raise the women's state pension age from 60 to 65 in line with men, were first revealed in the 1995 Pensions Act. 

In 2007 it was decided that the pensionable age for men and women would rise to 66 by April 2026.

This deadline was then sped up in 2011 so that the official retirement age for both sexes will be 66 by October 2020.

The Government insists it took 'extensive steps' to notify women of the changes and that the rise had been 'clearly communicated'.

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HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP

New state pension age: As we're all told to work longer, when will you be able to retire?

But after Money Mail unearthed the adverts, experts have slammed its campaigns as 'ludicrously inappropriate' as these failed to make clear vital information.

I quit my job because I did not receive the message 

Maggie Briley, 64, says she had no idea she would not receive her pension at 60

Maggie Briley, 64, says she had no idea she would not receive her pension at 60 until she was 54 — and by that time, had already left her full-time job.

The mother of two, of Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, gave up her sales consultancy role in 2008 to retrain as an adult education course tutor, and work part-time.

She planned to use her free days to help her daughter Kerry, 43, with childcare and to look after her elderly mother, who is nearly 90.

But in 2009, she discovered she'd have to wait 11 years (rather than six, as she'd been expecting) for her state pension.

In 2012, she received another blow when sent a letter informing her that the state pension age had been increased by another year, to 66.

Maggie and husband Gary, 67, had to downsize and take her private pension early to plug the gap.

She says: 'I felt sick to my stomach when I realised I would have to wait 11 years to receive my state pension, rather than six. By then I had left my job and couldn't go back.'

She says of the adverts Money Mail showed her: 'I don't know why they think we would assume a picture of dogs was anything to do with us.

'And the Monopoly adverts are insulting. It is more the case that they were playing a game with our lives.'

As a member of the Women Against State Pension Inequality group (Waspi), Maggie believes the Government should offer women like her a bridging pension until they reach their new state pension age. 

She says: 'I know there are women far worse off than me, but I've lost out on £50,000.'

Around a year after leaving her full-time job, Maggie decided to check her pension forecast, prompted by a conversation she had had with another couple while on holiday.

The holidaymakers had mentioned that not all women were to get their state pension at 60. And when she called up to get her forecast, this was confirmed over the phone — she would have to wait until she was 65.

Maggie says: 'I truly believe that a great error was made by the Government in not informing women of such a monumental change.

'All the literature was not specific enough and left too much to chance in the hope that the information would reach everyone.'

'This situation was very badly mismanaged.'

The Monopoly advert that didn't mention pension ages

The first official state pension awareness campaign was launched by the Department of Social Security (DSS) in 1998. It was designed around board game Monopoly, and warned readers not to leave their pension 'to chance' and to 'plan for the future now'.

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But one such advertisement, published in national newspapers including the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, failed even to mention the state pension age or women specifically. Instead, it urged readers to contact the DSS and request an 'impartial information leaflet'.

It would have been only by doing this that they would have learnt the state pension age was increasing.

One 1998 advert was designed around board game Monopoly, and warned readers not to leave their pension 'to chance' and to 'plan for the future now'

Dr Robin Carey, an advertising and marketing expert at the University of Central Lancashire, says: 'If I was just a regular reader of these newspapers, I would have no idea this was about the women's state pension age increasing.'

The DWP, which replaced the DSS in June 2001, says that more than 1.5 million leaflets had been requested by July 1999.

But only 34,000 of these were requested by individuals — less than 1 per cent of the number of women affected. The rest went to businesses and organisations.

The advertising agencies are given awards for creativity by the industry itself, not for delivering the intended message Dr Robin Carey, advertising expert 

In addition to the advertisements, direct mailings were also posted to 75,000 people who had responded to lifestyle surveys. Yet the DWP could not confirm the specific information included in the mailings.

Ads were also placed in local newspapers, phone boxes and on televisions in Post Offices.

The Government says the campaign, which ran between June 1998 and April 2000, won industry awards 'for its approach and impact'.

But Dr Carey, who has worked in the advertising industry for 20 years, says the creative merit came at a cost. 

He says: 'The advertising agencies are given awards for creativity by the industry itself, not for delivering the intended message.'

Campaign for justice: A BackTo60 demo outside High Court. Protestors argue that raising their pension age was age and sex discrimination

A vague pension warning from two talking dogs

Perhaps the strangest attempt at informing women about the changes to their state pension age was a £10 million 'Working Dogs' campaign launched in 2001. 

The adverts were placed in national newspapers and women's magazines and included a picture of two dogs sitting on a beach.

A speech bubble coming out of a black dog's mouth read: 'Our state pension age is changing Babs and I'm not sure how we'll be affected.' A golden retriever responds: 'Relax Wendy. There's a guide that tells you about it.'

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It is only explained in the small print beneath the picture that the state pension age for women is, in fact, changing to 65 to make it the same as men.

Readers are then encouraged to send in a coupon or call a telephone number to request a free information pack.  

Barking: one of the government's newspaper adverts for its awareness campaign featured two talking dogs

Former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann is dismissive. She says: 'How exactly would the Government expect a woman to have a clue that an advert where two dogs are talking to each other has anything to do with her, let alone that it is about her state pension?

'Any adverts should have had text in big red letters saying: 'Warning: if you are a woman and you think you will get your state pension at age 60, think again.' '

David Alder, a lecturer in advertising at Bournemouth University, says: 'A ludicrously inappropriate and probably offensive central metaphor makes this ad an automatic page-turner. 

'The central image is more reminiscent of work for the RSPCA or Battersea Dogs Home.'

How exactly would a woman have a clue that an advert where two dogs are talking to each other has anything to do with her, let alone that it is about her state pension?  Ex-pensions Minister Ros Altmann

Dr Carey adds that using the word 'changing' was a poor choice as the state pension age was rising. He adds: 'The dogs are supposed to be funny, and they are using comedy as a smokescreen to hide the truth.'

The DWP says its campaign, which ran between 2001 and 2003, received more than 1.1 million responses via its website, helpline, and returned coupons, with 1.5 million leaflets ordered by March 2002.

It adds that it used television and cinema advertising during the campaign, as well as 'direct marketing' to reach 190,000 people who had already requested to sign up for mailings about pensions. 

The bad news buried at the back of Woman magazine 

The Government also ran a series of advertorials — advertisements which look like news articles. Money Mail found just one that was printed in Woman magazine in March 2000 — during the period the Monopoly campaign was running.

It appeared on page 51 (of 59) of the weekly publication, with the headline 'Don't leave your pension to chance'.

The article begins: 'Pensions had never been very high on Carol Phillips' agenda — until her younger sister Anne mentioned that she was going to have to start her own after getting divorced.'

It is only almost half way through that readers discover that women's state pension age is rising.

The article reads: 'I found out that I'd be getting my state pension later than I thought,' adds Carol. 'Apparently, from 2020, women will be getting their state pension age at 65 — the same as men.

'As women tend to live longer than men, I suppose it makes sense and it's much easier to plan for the future when you know what changes are going to take place.' 

Mr Alder says: 'The aim seems to be to bury the bad news beneath the tedious story of a woman who one day called the DSS.'

There is also a small table at the bottom of the page which does clearly spell out how women of different ages will be affected.

Yet, by comparison, another more positive advertisement in the same magazine promoting the introduction of the minimum wage shows just how clear government messages can be.

In large, simple black text the Department of Trade and Industry's full-page advertisement says: 'The minimum wage arrives April 1st. Find out what it will do for you.'

Many stories were also printed in newspapers about the changes, and there were more than 600 mentions of the state pension-age increase in the national press between 1993 and 2006.

Campaigners fighting the changes 

Campaigning groups, including Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) and BackTo60, are representing those who have lost thousands as a result.

The women who brought the case to the High Court belong to BackTo60, which believes all of those affected by the changes should receive back-payments for all the years of pension they have missed out on.

BackTo60 spokeswoman Joanne Welch says: 'Frankly, the few adverts are wholly inadequate and were highly unlikely to be seen by anyone.'

A Waspi spokesman says: 'Waspi have never seen any of these adverts and they have never previously been shared by the Government.

'The adverts all contain aspects of inappropriate, unspecific and patronising information.'

A ruling on the judicial review is expected by the end of this month.

A DWP spokesman says: 'The Government decided more than 20 years ago that it was going to make state pension age the same for men and women in a long overdue move towards gender equality. This change was clearly communicated via award-winning [advertising] campaigns, direct mailings and advertisements across television, radio, newspapers and magazines.'

Letters that came too late for some women  

Between 2003 and 2006, millions of women below retirement age received letters with an estimate of what their state pension would be in retirement.

But the letters did not contain any information about the rise in state pension age from 60 to 65.

Baroness Altmann says: 'These letters should have included clear warnings to women so they knew not to expect to receive their pension at 60. This was the biggest of all communication failures.'

She adds: 'Advertisements in magazines or newspapers are simply not proper public information. The Government should have written individually to each woman.'

The DWP only began sending letters directly to women about the changes to the state pension age in April 2009, when 1.2 million were posted to affected women between then and March 2011.

Then, between 2012 and 2013, more than five million letters were sent to inform women and men that their state pension age was now rising further — to 66.

Many of the 3.8 million women affected say this was the first they knew anything about the increases. By this point, many were already in their 50s, with little time to prepare.

The DWP says all the women affected, those born between April 6, 1953 and April 5, 1960, would have received a letter at this point informing them of the rise.

But research published almost a decade before, in 2004, showed just 43 per cent of affected women were aware that the increase would impact them, suggesting more should have been done to inform them sooner.

Steve Webb, former Pensions Minister and now director of policy at Royal London, says: 'The real failure was when the government of the day knew that many women were unaware of the changes to come and took no action in response.'

Meanwhile, a damning report published by the Work and Pensions Select Committee in 2016 concluded that 'well into this decade far too many affected women were unaware' of the changes.

It said: 'While the last and current governments have done more to communicate state pension age changes than their predecessors, this has been too little, too late, for many women, especially given increases in the state pension age have been accelerated at relatively short notice.'

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The document concluded: 'Many thousands of women justifiably feel aggrieved.'

How much is the state pension?

The basic state pension is currently £129.20.  It is topped up by additional state pension entitlements - S2P and Serps - accrued during working years. 

The two-tier state system has changed for people retiring since 6 April 2016, when it was replaced by a new 'flat rate' state pension. This is currently worth £168.60 a week.

People who have contracted out of S2P and Serps over the years and retire after April 2016 get less than the full new state pension. 

But they can fill gaps in unpaid and or underpaid National Insurance in previous years, and build up more qualifying years if they have enough time between now and state pension age.

Workers needed to have 30 years of qualifying National Insurance contributions to get the old state pension, but they now need to have 35 years of contributions to get the new flat rate state pension.

But even if you paid in full for a whole 35 years, if you contracted out for some years on top of that it might still reduce what you get. 

Everyone gets the option of deferring their state pension to get more in their later years. You can check your NI record here.