THE UNFAIRNESS of the State Pension system has been highlighted in parliament, through the stories of three Irvine pensioners.

Ann Aitken, of Girdle Gate, Jean Dickson, of Duntonknoll, and Lawrence Clark, of Strathmore Park, were each highlighted during a Westminster debate, illustrating cases where people are effectively being penalised for working all their lives.

The debate on fairness in pension provision was organised by Irvine MP Brian Donohoe, was approached by the three constituents, who all wanted to draw attention to the problem.

Ann Aitken worked from the age of 15, for companies including ICI, Fullerton Fabrication and Crown Paints, from which she retired after 22 years last week. Over that period, she took just five years off to bring up her first child.

However, she recently discovered that her additional state pension (around £16.22) is less than that of someone who has never worked (around £21), leaving her wondering where her reward is for working all those years.

Retired nurse Jean Dickson receives a state pension of £566 a month, occupational pension of £240 per month before tax and a £300 a year widow’s pension.

She also receives £166 a year for the state earnings-related pension scheme, SERPS, but in her last job, she paid 6.5 per cent of her pay towards superannuation, so she still feels that there is injustice in her situation. She retired in October 2012, but is effectively being penalised for working.

Lawrence Clark, again, started work at 15 as a trainee accountant at Hyster, before going on to other companies including Wilson Sporting Goods and Quarriers.

After that working life, he has managed to accrue £97 a month from his Wilson Sporting Goods occupational pension and £223 from Quarriers. In addition, on the basis of advice he received, he paid towards a private pension that gives him around £14 a month.

From November 2015 he is going to receive a state pension of £123 a week. As a consequence of all that, until that point next November, he gets £60 a week for his pension credit guarantee, whereas others are apparently receiving £140.

If he had not paid something like £30,000 into a superannuation scheme, he believes that he would currently be better off per week until he retires.

In presenting the cases to parliament, Mr Donohoe said: “That is the difficulty for each of those individuals, but the position is more general too.

“The problem is that the great mass of people in this country do not have a clue, when they are aged 25, 35 or 55, about what provision they are making.

They do not know what the result of their contributions will be for their pension.” He added: “None of these constituents came to me about these issues because they expected it to be rectified for them, they wanted nothing, only to try and ensure changes were made to the system to make it more fair for the next generation of pensioners.

“The main issue raised was that of the anomaly of people paying into private pensions but ending up worse off than those who only receive a state pension.

“I hope that by raising the issues as I have done in the House, that the Government will look at the system with a view to improving it and ensuring that for those who work their entire life their state pension provision is fair and reflects the years they have paid into the system.”