Catherine McKinnell, MP for Newcastle North, has spoken up again for North East women hit by unfair increases to their State Pension age, during questions in the House of Commons this afternoon (11th July).
Changes introduced by legislation in 1995, and then accelerated in 2011, mean that millions of women born after 6th April 1950 – who had previously expected to retire at age 60 – will not be entitled to receive their State Pension until between the ages of 63 and 66.
Some women have been affected by both changes, seeing their State Pension age increased twice – with many women having received little, or even no, notification of either increase from the Government. According to the independent House of Commons Library, around 4,000 women are directly affected by the 2011 legislation in Newcastle North alone.
Catherine has campaigned extensively on this issue, having voted against the 2011 Pensions Act because of the disproportionate impact of the changes on this group of women. The Newcastle North MP has also become a Vice Chair of the recently-established All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the WASPI campaign.
The WASPI campaign works to lobby the Government to introduce transitional arrangements for the women affected, many of whom took early retirement – often due to ill health, or because of increased caring responsibilities – in anticipation of reaching State Pension age at 60, and have been left without any income, in some cases until the age of 66.
Questioning Work and Pensions Ministers this afternoon, Catherine asked:
‘Could the Secretary of State explain to the WASPI women from the North East, some of whom have already retired in the mistaken belief that they would be receiving their State Pension sooner – and in a region that continues to have the highest level of unemployment in the country – how they are to make ends meet?’
Speaking afterwards, Catherine commented:
‘Ministers continue to dismiss out of hand the financial hardship in which many 1950s-born women now find themselves, repeatedly claiming that those affected were aware of the changes in good time.
‘But I have lost count of the number of constituents who’ve been in touch with me to say they had absolutely no idea about the age increase, until they heard about them through the media or from a friend – often not until they were in their late fifties.
‘It’s simply not good enough for the Government to keep abdicating any responsibility for this mess, and I will not give up on fighting against this injustice until Ministers act to put it right.’
Catherine’s question today follows the national mass lobby of Parliament on 29th June, which saw a large contingent of North East WASPI campaigners converge on Parliament – and a recent coffee morning the Newcastle MP hosted in Lemington for affected women from across the region.