‘We’ve paid our contributions’ - Great Yarmouth woman led chants at pension protest
Joy Scott, 60, from Great Yarmouth, in London on June 6 at a protest against pension age changes. Picture: Norfolk Broads-PAIN. - Credit: Archant
A Great Yarmouth woman led the chants at a protest in London over pension age changes.
Joy Scott, 60, was among a group of Norfolk women who went to the capital last week to show opposition to changes to the pension age which they say will leave thousands out of pocket.
Mrs Scott is one of the women, born in the 1950s, whose retirement age was raised from 60 to 66, so it is on a par with pension age for men.
She said she went to the protest to show her support for the two claimants who have taken the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to court, seeking a judicial review of how the government raised the age.
"We've paid our contributions," Mrs Scott said.
Norfolk Broads-PAIN led protests in London on June 6 against pension age changes. Picture: Norfolk Broads-PAIN. - Credit: Archant
She added: "But because they forced through rising the state pension age, I find myself being one of the women badly affected by it."
Mrs Scott has worked for more than 40 years, since she was 15 years old, and for the last 20 years has worked in education as a pupil assessment officer.
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She estimated the government's decision has cost her £45,000.
"While I was working I was still contributing to my pension," she said.
"If it was a private pension it would be an absolute scandal."
Members from pension campaign group Norfolk Broads-PAIN (Pension Action In Norfolk) had travelled to London to support the Back to 60 group who were at the Royal Courts of Justice for a long awaited judicial review on how the government raised the pension age for women from 60 to 66.
The judges' decision will be announced in six to eight weeks time.
Mrs Scott said: "There was a fantastic atmosphere there, we tried to get into the court, but it was packed, but we made plenty of noise outside."
The Great Yarmouth woman led the chants and pointed at random members of the public to get them involved.
"I've still got a bit of a creaky voice," she said.
Norfolk Broads-PAIN shares news from all sources in a bid to keep its 200 members fully informed about the important changes affecting women born in the 1950 and 1960s.
