U-turn on state pension a kick in the teeth for farmers’ wives

IT has been described as illegal, immoral and a kick in the teeth for elderly people.

But the scandal surrounding a decision by the Department of Social Protection to backtrack on paying farmers’ wives state pensions is, above all, a story of injustice.

Hundreds of elderly women, who have spent most of their working lives labouring on farms through frosty mornings and late evenings, now face hefty bills for thousands of euro because the department got it wrong.