Women report pension shortfalls to deputy

A politician is exploring claims from women who say they are receiving a smaller pension than they had expected.

Deputy Lee Van Katwyk said the way women's pensions were calculated had been changed in 2003 and they had stopped being based on a husband's contribution record.

He said many of those speaking to him had been in their 40s when the changes were made and had only discovered a shortfall when they had reached the pension age.

"To look at your pension and suddenly realise 'hang on a minute, I'm not getting what I thought I should be getting', that's just terrifying," Van Katwyk said.

He said he had been contacted by dozens of women who "feel like they've been short-changed" and he thought the changes to the pension system had not been "fully explained or "explained enough" at the time.

Van Katwyk said: "I want to be able to speak to everybody as much as possible, one-to-one on the telephone, [to hear] what they were told in the past and get that information from the public before moving on to speaking with officers.

"Right now, I'm not asking the States to do anything, this is very much a conversation with myself and the public."

The BBC has approached the States of Guernsey for comment.

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