Guy Oppenham, minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion, was heckled by fellow MPs last night as he appeared to suggest women in their 60s who are facing poverty in retirement become apprentices.
He made the comments in a debate on the situation of women who are in their 60s and have been affected by the changes to the state pension age.
Known as Women Against State Pension Inequality (Wapsi), they argue that they were not given enough time to plan for the changes, which mean that they have to work for longer, and are financially unprepared.
Mr Oppenham, who was laying out the government’s work on lifelong learning, faced shouts of “shame on you” when he talked about how the govenrment was trying to get older people back into employment.
"The reality is over 200,000 people over 60 have entered further education since 2014/15,” he said.
"We have also extended apprenticeship opportunities as one of the best routes to skilled employment for people of all ages and gender.”
At one point he acknowledged the angry heckling, “The point I’m trying to make – and I realise it is not going down very well - is that the government is actually doing a significant amount to address the individual difficulties that those persons attempting to enter the labour market.”
Labour's Graham Jones, raising a point of order, said: "I'm struggling to hear the debate, did the minister just say that women aged 64 could go on an apprenticeship course?"
The change in pension age is believed to affect some 2.6 million women.
Angry Waspis took to Twitter to voice their anger over Mr Oppenham’s comments.
“While i'm becoming a 63yr apprentice who's caring for 85yr+ parents?Do I take them with me?” asked one.
“@GuyOpperman could get another job as a apprentice comedian”, suggested another.
The debate came as it emerged that the government has received more than 700 complaints from women who are affected by the increase in the age when they can received their pension.
These women were notified in a letter this week that their complaints would be investigated in October of this year, after the formation of a special team to investigate them.
