WHEN thousands of women took to the streets of Glasgow earlier this month to protest about state pension age rises their ire was directed at a 1995 government decision, which, they claimed, could cost them up to £40,000 in pension payments.

Although since the 1950s women have been able to claim the state pension at age 60 and men at 65, a process of equalisation that began in 2010 will see all women have to work to 65 by 2018.

Currently the new state pension is set at £155.63 a week, meaning the five-year increase equates to a reduction in a total pension pot of just under £40,500.

Anyone who thinks this is just a women’s issue needs to think again, though, with a more recent pension reform set to see the state pension age for men and women rise to 66 between 2018 and 2020.

Ros Altmann, a long-time campaigner for pensioners’ rights who served as pensions minister from early 2015 until she quit her job when Theresa May became Prime Minister, said that women are justified in being angry about the rise from 60 to 65 because they were not informed about it and so weren’t given time to prepare.

With time marching on towards the 2020 deadline she fears that history is going to repeat itself, saying that the UK Government is not doing enough to make it known that men and women will either have to work a year longer than planned or dip into savings to fund their first year of retirement.

“Women [approaching retirement age] said that they weren’t against equalisation or increases in the state pension age, but that they didn’t think it applied to them and so didn’t have time to prepare,” she said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if millions of people don’t yet realise the change [to 66] is coming but the issue is that no one has even checked.

“Even if you do know that the state pension age is going up, if you’re in your early 60s then during your whole life every man you’ve ever known has got the state pension at 65 – you may not think it applies to you.

“The big injustice for women, which we’re in danger of repeating for men too, is that they weren’t told and didn’t have a chance to prepare.”

Ms Altmann believes the Government must take action now by ploughing money into an advertising campaign that lets everyone aged 62 or under know that they will no longer get their state pension when they turn 65.

“These things can be done,” she said. “The Government is spending a lot of money promoting state pension top-ups, which are not even suitable for many people.”

However, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady pointed out that informing people that they will have to wait a little longer for the pension is all very well if those people are able to keep working, but ultimately futile if they are not.

“The Government needs to ensure that all those affected by the rise in the state pension age in 2020 are fully informed,” she said.

“But the slickest advertising campaign the Government can muster will do nothing for those older people unable to keep working until state pension age.”

The flipside of this is that some people, particularly in the most deprived areas of Scotland, will never reach that age because their life expectancy is so low, meaning the rise could deny them of any payback from the years of national insurance contributions required to be eligible for a state pension.

Malcolm Paul, chairman of JLT Employee Benefits Scotland, noted that the increase in state pension ages has generally been “an emotive subject in Scotland”, not least during the independence referendum.

“The main source of frustration is that life expectancy in Scotland is lower than most parts of England, so there is arguably less need to raise it further,” he said.

“Indeed in the most deprived areas of Glasgow city, life expectancy is around age 65 – so many of these people may not even live to receive their state pension.”

For Ms Altmann raising the state pension age across the board “is not the best way or fairest way socially to manage the cost of an ageing population”.

“There’s certainly the case for some increase across the board for most people but maybe there needs to be a slightly different approach going forward because there’s such disparity between different regions, different occupations, different demographics and different income groups,” she said.

The plight of pensioners is something that is being taken up by regulator the Financial Conduct Authority, which is in the middle of a project that looks specifically at the way in which financial services meet the needs of older consumers.

Old Mutual Wealth pension technical expert Jon Greer said the project shows that the regulator is “acutely aware of the challenges of helping people manage their money in later life”, although the project is focused entirely on provision in the private sector.

For Ms O’Grady at the TUC, helping the ageing population deal with their finances needs to be a priority for the public sector too.

“We need ministers to bring in measures to help those older workers who want to stay employed to remain in the jobs market while ensuring others have adequate pensions for a good standard of living in retirement,” she said.