A HAMPSHIRE MP has vowed to help the most vulnerable people affected by government changes to the state pension age.

It comes as new figures reveal how much money has been clawed back by central government after women’s age of retirement changed from 60 to 63.

Eastleigh MP Mims Davies, who is on the all party WASPI parliamentary group, said having spoken to constituents affected by the changes the priority needs to be those most affected - and said some women are “just annoyed”.

She said: “There are some women who are particularly disadvantaged. There are those who are more impacted than others, and some who have done alright and are quite comfortable” and added that the government would have been aware of the money to be made when they planned the changes.

It comes as figures released by the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed the increase to women’s state pension age from 60 to 63 boosted government coffers by £5.1bn per year - while leaving thousands of women across Hampshire and the UK worse off by around £30 a week.

Shelagh Simmons of the Solent Women Against State Pension Inequality group said: “The findings of this report come as no surprise to us. We know how badly hit many women have been by these state pension age changes. In our group we have women who can’t work because of ill health; some are single and don’t have a partner’s financial support; others have been forced to sell their homes in order to live.

“And, of course, the IFS report doesn’t include the impact on those for whom the SPA rise has been accelerated and have to wait until they’re 66 for their pensions.

“We’ve faced inequality all our working lives in terms of earning and pension capacity and this report shows we’re being penalised again. The Government can’t continue to be in denial. It needs to act.”

As previously reported in Hampshire there are around 116,000 women and their families hit by these SPA changes including 11,000 in Southampton alone.

It comes just one week after David Gauke, secretary of state for work and pensions, announced a rise in the state pension age to 68 - to be phased in between 2037 and 2039, rather than from 2044 as was originally proposed, which affects people currently aged between 39 and 47.