Emma recently held a coffee morning in South Shields to highlight and support the WASPI campaign. Many women born in the 1950s (On or after 6th April 1951) are losing around six years of their State Pension due to the way the Government implemented changes to the retirement age following the Conservative Government’s State pension Act 1995 and the Coalition’s acceleration of these changes under the 2011 Pensions Act. Most of the women affected have not been told until it is too late for them to either continue working or to re-organise their finances to allow them to retire. The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign began to undertake research into this issue and gather public support. Emma is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) that is exploring policy options to present to Government and, along with other members of the APPG, will be presenting a petition to Parliament in October signed by women in Shields affected by the changes. WASPI are keen to stress that they support the equalisation of the retirement age for men and women. It is the way the changes have been introduced and imposed that is causing real hardship.
The Coffee Morning, at the Customs House, was a lively and passionate event, the Government have underestimated the WASPI women but they really are a force to be reckoned with. Emma assured the women present that she would continue to stand with them until this injustice is redressed. Women attending had these messages for the Government
“Working women who have tried hard to earn a wage and bring up a family are being penalised”
“Do the right thing – give us our State Pension now. We have paid NI for more than 35 years – we need it now”
“Don’t ignore us – we are not going away”
If you would like to sign the WASPI petition you will find here:
http://www.waspi.co.uk/
It is vital that these final paper petitions are returned to my South Shields office no later than noon on Friday 7th October and that they are only signed by Constituents of South Shields (Please note that e-mailed versions cannot be submitted to Parliament, it must be the original copy).