Telford MP, Lucy Allan is aiming to meet with Stephen Crabb MP, the Work and Pensions Secretary, to put to him the case of three ‘WASPI’ constituents who are seeing their access to the state pension delayed by six years.
Last Friday Lucy met with local constituents Julie Walker, Elaine Saunders and Diane Hawtree who are three Women Against State Pension Increase (WASPI) campaigners to hear how the state pension age increase has affected each of their lives. In Telford alone, over 350 women have signed the WASPI Parliamentary petition.
Having met Julie, Elaine and Diane and heard their personal stories and what the future holds for them, Lucy will write to and seek to meet with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions asking him to consider the implications for these women and the other thousands across the UK.
Commenting, Lucy said: “Many of the women affected by the state pension change all had similar starts and specifically a lack of opportunity in their early lives. For a lot of women born in the 1950s the chance to study for higher qualifications and advance into professional occupations did simply not exist.
“Low paying jobs, minimal employment rights and no chance to build a private pension pot was the normal start to working life. In addition marriage and child birth may have meant sacrificing employment to stay at home leading to a reliance on husbands. In the case of marriage breakdowns women were not provided for as they would be today.
“The cumulative impact of a lack of opportunity, low paying work and, for some, divorce has left part of a generation facing an uncertain future. Despite having a wealth of experience these ladies struggle to access the employment market. I want to raise this with the Secretary State and ask him to speak to his female relatives for their opinion as behind every statistic is a story.”
After meeting Lucy Julie, Diane and Elaine said: “We are grateful that Lucy was able to meet with us and hear our stories. Whilst we fully accept the need for the state pension age to be equalised we feel as though we have had the rug pulled from beneath us. We are determined to keep fighting on this issue as we have been hit twice, first in 1995 and then again in 2011.
"Not only will the increase in the state pension age affect our lives it will have repercussions for our families as we will be unable to provide support and childcare for our grandchildren that our children have come to rely on."
Above photograph shows (l-r) Diane Hawtree, Lucy Allan MP, Julie Walker and Elaine Saunders.