Stephen Crabb says it is not possible to unwind changes to the state pension age that mean women stand to lose out

Women who stand to lose thousands of pounds because of increases to the state pension age should not expect the government to intervene, the work and pensions secretary, Stephen Crabb, has told MPs.

Campaigners say women born in the 1950s will be left out of pocket by a government decision made five years ago to speed up the phasing in of an increase from 60 to 66 in the age at which women can retire.

They have argued that protections should be introduced to ease the impact on women, for example by allowing women to take their pensions earlier at a reduced rate and thereby neutralising the cost of the change.

But, speaking to the work and pensions select committee, Crabb said: “As far as I can see there isn’t a policy solution emerging out of all these intense discussions that people are coalescing around.”



He said he understood women who said they felt that they were taken by surprise by the changes but said it would be “impossible” to unwind changes dating back more than 20 years. “I don’t see that there’s a doable policy solution.”

He added: “It is just fiscally impossible. And I think it’s irresponsible of anyone in this House of Commons to try to pretend and lead these women on into thinking that somehow there’s an easy decision to be made.”



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Campaigners have argued that the government failed to properly inform women about the changes. The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) group has lobbied for “fair transitional arrangements”.

Waspi said it was surprised that Crabb had seemingly ruled out transitional arrangements without consulting them, especially as the pensions minister, Ros Altman, had said last month that she was examining ways to deal with the issue.

“I am disappointed, but still hopeful,” Marion Smulders, a co-founder of Waspi, told the BBC.



Labour said that by ruling out government action Crabb was slamming the door in the faces of women hit by what it called “mishandled” pension changes.

Owen Smith, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “There is growing pressure from across the political spectrum for the government to listen to Labour’s demands to bring forward protections to help those who are set to lose out.

“Yet today the newsecretary of state attempted to wash his hands of the issue. However, the Labour party has no intention of letting him off the hook so easily and we will continue to campaign for a fair settlement for the Waspi women.”

Crabb also told MPs he would push ahead with the government’s universal credit policy, shrugging off criticisms that it no longer served its original purpose of making people better off in work than on benefits.

He felt optimistic that UC “still did what it said on the tin originally” despite claims that Treasury cuts to work incentives meant that the flagship welfare policy had been reduced to a cost-cutting exercise that left millions worse off.



In his first appearance before the Commons work and pensions select committee, Crabb said he had spent the past six weeks “kicking the tyres and looking under the bonnet” of UC and was confident the programme should be rolled out as planned.

Crabb was responding to an analysis by the Resolution Foundation thinktank, which found that cuts to work allowances would leave 2.6 million claimants up to £46 a week worse off, even after higher minimum wage and tax cuts had been factored in.



He confirmed that there would be no further cuts to welfare spending during this parliament, despite a £4bn budget gap opened up by the government’s U-turn on disability benefits in March.



He said: “What that does mean is that when we get to the autumn statement there’s a £4bn gap. As a government we have to think about what that means. But we won’t be looking to other parts of welfare spending to offset that decision.”

Although it was a “personal priority” to get more disabled people into employment, plans to publish a a white paper, originally scheduled for the spring, would now be put on hold while he consulted charities and employers over the best way forward.

Crabb criticised employers who fail to “do the right thing” by taking on people with a disability, contrasting a family-owned sports shop in his constituency that employed a man with Down’s syndrome to meet and greet customers, with its high-street rival, the chain retailer Sports Direct.

Crabb said: “Sports Direct have no track record as far as I am aware of doing the right thing by way of support for people with disabilities.”

The government has committed to ambitious plans to halving the disability employment gap, which would entail getting more than 1 million people with a disability into a job by 2020.