Thousands of women in their mid-50s, who could be hit hard by future increases to the State pension age, have been thrown a lifeline after the Government announced a delay in the Second reading of its controversial Pensions Bill. The delay has been prompted by the Government’s decision to consider proposals that would reduce the financial impact of its intended pension changes on women currently aged between 56 and 57. It follows a demonstration at Westminster last Wednesday by many of the women affected. If passed in its current form, the Pensions Bill would speed up the timetable for the equalisation of the State pension age for men and women to 65 by 2018 – two years earlier than the Government had promised.

There will then be an increase in State pension age for everyone to 66 by 2020. But it means 330,000 women aged between 56 and 57 now would have to wait up to two years longer to collect their State pension – losing the equivalent of up to £5,000 in income each year. Age UK claims unmarried women and women who are widowed or divorced will be particularly affected. Many women in this age group are also unable to work because of their family commitments. Today currently women can expect to retire on an average pension income of £12,900 a year compared with £19,400 for men. About 330,000 women aged between 56 and 57 will be hit hardest by the Pension Bill reforms. If you are affected, the first step is to find out exactly when you will get the State pension under the new rules.

The universal State pension, which promises a flat rate income (expected to be the equivalent of about £155 a week) should start in 2016 – thereby benefiting women now aged between 56 and 57. This new pension will remove means-testing so people should benefit from every penny saved. If you are concerned, the best thing to do is to check your employer’s pension provision to see whether you are eligible to join, or if you can increase contributions. See whether your employer offers a salary exchange, which is a tax-efficient way to invest more of your wage in a pension. Review existing savings and investments to see how they are performing and switch where necessary. Don’t take big risks with investments and pensions, particularly in your 50s.

You should spread the risk by investing in a broad range of equity funds, fixed-interest bonds and deposit savings.

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As we are coming up to Mothers Day as well I thought I would write about those women who feel that somewhere along the way they have lost track of who they are and what they are all about. This, by the way, mostly relates to mothers – in fact I would say it is almost a ‘mother-thing’ to become so caught up in everyone else’s life that you forget who YOU are. Women who go out to work don’t wear odd socks under their trousers unless it’s a new trend, we mothers live in odd socks because we have accepted that washing machines never return a matching pair…ever. But back to that identity thing, have you checked yours lately…?

It happens so slowly that you don’t even notice anything different; gradually – day by day, week by week, etc – your habits change until one day you realise it has been at least 5 days since you touched the bottle of shampoo and the elastic band has become your stock fashion accessory. As you comb the your child’s hair before school one morning, making sure every hair is in place, you recall somewhere at sometime that you too once did something with a can of mousse and spray and the result was wonderful…but that was a long time ago and who uses mousse foam these days anyway? and that stupid lipstick in your bag that keeps lurking at the bottom where your loose change is…how long ago did you buy that, or even wear it?, because the price tag shows a currency no longer in use…and I’m sure that those CD’s you used to love driving along to on your way to work (remember having your own car?) still exist somewhere…or were they cassettes? no matter, Marvin Gaye would only stir up memories of that guy your husband will have hoped you had forgotten. As yet another brochure for the opening of the latest candle-lit-incense-fuelled Day Spa drops through your mail box you think for a brief moment how nice it would be to be smoothed with orange scented oil and covered with warm pebbles as whale-mating music plays gently in the background, but who has 2 hours and £95 to spare for such folly? the one day, all of a sudden, you stand thinking in the middle of it all – the lost moments for putting on lipstick, for looking for that darned matching sock, for blowing £95 on a 2 hour back rub – and you wonder where the hell you went…where YOU went!

Well you know, she’s there. She’s combing other people’s hair, matching other people’s socks, picking out nice outfits for kids to wear for ‘no uniform day’, admiring other women’s hairstyles and outfits. All you have to do is get a shovel and start digging because she is not too far below the surface, she just needs a little help escaping. Identity is something we all have but in order to keep it alive you need to nurture it, and doing that requires time – everyday – and you have to be the one to do it because nobody else can or will. But it is there, in the back of your mind and inside your heart, as crowded as those places have become in the past few years, ‘she’ is still inside you. Give her some attention now and then and she will stay right there, even if you are the only one who still recognises her.

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Just recently I wrote about the situation in our home with regards to my teenage son’s laptop being out of order. Ever lived with a teenager whose access to Facebook has been interfered with…? it’s not nice believe me. However, we were tossing up whether to repair his laptop or replace and so we decided to repair it as the cost turned out to be less than what we expected. So he is now a much happier bunny.

I have decided though that he does need a replacement machine sometime this year and I looked at some desktops while I was at the repair shop. The guy had some nice reconditioned machines that actually would suit my son really well as he likes to play online games and of course laptops are really not suited to online gaming. Now I know what to get him for his birthday…

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