This podcast is an update on one I produced a few weeks ago on the issue of WASPI - Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign and how women born in the 1950s were going to be disproportionately affected by State Pension age equalisation.
I think the WASPI campaign is really taking off and I pay tribute to the women behind it.
Whilst I am supportive of equalisation the State Pension, I am concerned that the greatest burden seems to be falling on women who were born from 1950-55 and in many cases had very little notice to make alternative arrangements for their retirement.
Last week, we had the powerful admission from former pensions minster, Steve Webb, who said that the Government had made the wrong decision. I think now the Government, in particular the Secretary of State for Work and Pension, Iain Duncan Smith, who I know takes this seriously, needs to come back to Parliament and account for how the decisions were made and to see whether some more generous transitional measure can be introduced.
There are a number of ways the Government can soften the blow, so we want the Government to come back to Parliament and explain what they propose to do.
If you have not done so already, get onto your MP. If I am your MP, by all means write to me and give me your personal testimony about how the changes are going to affect you. Hopefully together we can persuade the Government to look at this again and bring about some change.
In the meantime, have a Happy Christmas.
