Women concerned about losing out because of changes to their pension arrangements have recently attended meetings in Burry Port, Tumble and Llanelli organised by Nia Griffith MP. There will be another such meeting at 6 pm on Friday 22nd July in the Glenalla Hall, Glenalla Road, Llanelli for any women who have not been able to attend previously or who want to bring along friends, get an update, return petitions or discuss future plans over a cup of coffee.
Update from Nia Griffith MP
“Campaigns often take some considerable time, which can be very frustrating, so I’d like to give you a brief update, and I can assure you that I will be continuing to campaign hard for as long as it takes.
On 29th June some local women joined Nia at the very effective demonstration outside Westminster, organised by Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) which has been well-shared on social media, but not as much coverage on TV.
Along with my colleagues Barbara Keeley MP and Andrew Gwynne MP, I am a founder member of our very active All -Party Parliamentary Group on State Pension Inequality and we are in regular contact with the organisers of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), and we will continue to put pressure on the Government to consider ways in which they could make the transition to the new pension age fairer, particularly for those women worst hit by the changes. This includes putting forward proposals to them, such as the one developed by some members of WASPI, as a basis for negotiation.
The Conservative Government is still showing no signs of moving on this issue, and increasingly the response that we are getting to questions is that a change in policy will be a matter for their new leader, our new Prime Minister. Therefore, if you know anyone living in an area with a Conservative MP (such as Gower or Carmarthen West or Pembrokeshire), you could suggest that they contact their MPs and ask them to ask the Conservative leadership candidates what they will do to help women affected by these pension changes.
We want to gather as many signatures for the parliamentary petition as we can, and will probably now present it in the autumn, so that we can make a really big impact on the new Prime Minister. Copies of the petition are available from my office where they should be returned when they are completed.”
