WEST Dunbartonshire Council unanimously backed a motion last week supporting women who are being denied their pensions for years because of government changes.

Women born in the 1950s across the UK are being hit by years of delay to pension payouts after the government raised the retirement ages.

While it meant only a one year delay for men, it’s a full six years for thousands of women whose retirement planning has been thrown into disarray, many with little notification at all.

Councillor Jonathan McColl put forward a motion at the meeting last week calling for the UK government to make fair transitional state pension arrangements for all women born on or after April 6, 1951.

Women affected by the changes and SNP councillors supporting them joined on the steps of the council HQ to show their support for the motion.

“I think this is an issue we can all agree on,” said Cllr McColl in the meeting. “We are talking about people’s lives.”

Rae Fleming, a spokeswoman for West Dunbartonshire WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality), said: “A lot of ladies have had to take zero-hours contracts, or heavy manual labour, because of the short notice they have received from the UK government.

“This is particularly hard for women over 60, who are often suffering from health problems. Their retirement plans have been shattered, and the shorter lifespan in West Dunbartonshire may mean we might literally have to work until we die.”

Martin Docherty-Hughes, MP for West Dunbartonshire, added: “Successive UK governments have failed to uphold the social contract which has underpinned our social security system since 1945.”

The full motion passed by the council last week read: “Council calls upon the UK government to make fair transitional state pension arrangements for all women born on or after 6th April 1951, who have unfairly borne the burden of the increase to the State Pension Age (SPA) with lack of appropriate notification."

The motion goes on to say: "Hundreds of thousands of women had significant pension changes imposed on them by the Pensions Acts of 1995 and 2011 with little or no notification of the changes.

"Some women had only two years' notice of a six-year increase to their SPA.

"Many women born in the 1950's are living in hardship.

"Retirement plans have been shattered with devastating consequences.

"Many of these women are already out of the labour market, caring for elderly relatives, providing childcare for grandchildren, or suffer discrimination in the workplace and struggle to find employment.

"Women born in this decade are suffering financially. These women have worked hard, raised families and paid their tax and national insurance with the expectation that they would be financially secure when reaching 60.

"It is not the pension age itself that is in dispute - it is widely accepted that women and men should retire at the same time.

"The issue is that the rise in the women's SPA has been too rapid and has happened without sufficient notice being given to those affected, leaving women with no time to make alternative arrangements."

Mr McColl's motion also asks that council "calls upon the UK government to reconsider transitional arrangements for women born on or after 6th April 1951, so that women do not live in hardship due to pension changes they were not told about until it was too late to make alternative arrangements."