Call to help women hit by pension changes
Nearly 500 attend meeting
Rutherglen’s MP has demanded Government action to support women adversely affected by pensions changes.
Ged Killen made the call after a meeting at the Cambuslang Institute this week which was attended by almost 500 local women, including representatives from the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign.
More than 5000 females born in the 1950s and living in Rutherglen and Hamilton West are set to lose tens of thousands of pounds from their state pension because of government changes to the retirement age.
Many have been left angry over the changes, saying that they received little or no notice that their pension age was set to increase and have now had to abandon plans to retire, attempt to find new work, or claim benefits to meet the shortfall.
The Labour MP also called on the Department of Work and Pensions to improve the way it is dealing with complaints from those affected after a response to a recent parliamentary question showed that women are waiting 47 weeks on average to have their cases examined.
Mr Killen will now be organising a series of special surgeries in the coming weeks to offer assistance to those wishing to send complaint letters to the DWP.
The MP said: “Rutherglen and Hamilton West is one of the worst affected constituencies.
“These are women who have worked all their lives paying into the system, in many cases battling for equal pay when they were in work.
“To have almost reached retirement age and then have the rug pulled out from under them like this is disgraceful.
“I was delighted that so many women took the time to come to our meeting and share their stories. To date, the DWP has completely failed to handle complaints about these changes effectively, taking on average 47 weeks for cases to be examined.
“It is time for the government to get real.
“We need transitional arrangements to cover the period between when 1950sborn women were due to retire and their new retirement age and those who have already reached their original retirement age deserve to be compensated.”
Mr Killen added: “All of the information women need to initiate a complaint is available from the WASPI website, including template letters.
“If anyone would like more advice or an appointment please contact me on ged.killen. mp@parliament.uk or call my office on 0141 641 0075.”