Madam,

There are many local women born in the 1950s who are suffering financially due to changes in their state pension age. These women expected to receive their pension when they were 60, but their state pension age was changed by acts of Parliament in 1995 and 2011.

Unfortunately, the Department for Work and Pensions was slow notifying the women concerned and many reached the age of 60 without realising that they would have to wait longer for their pension.

The apolitical national campaign group WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) was formed to help these women. We are not asking for the state pension age to be returned to 60 but we are asking for these women, born in the 1950s, to receive financial help in the form of a bridging pension and/ or some form of financial compensation.

WASPI has received legal advice and believes that there is a case of serious maladministration on the part of the DWP in the way it implemented the changes in the state pension age.

No-one is arguing with the right of Parliament to change the law, but we believe that these changes were not implemented fairly and have left many women suffering great financial hardship.

We have recently set up a local WASPI Group in Dwyfor Meirionnydd which meets regularly to give mutual support and to help the women adversely affected to write letters of complaint regarding DWP maladministration.

The group is open to women born in the 1950s and can be contacted by emailing [email protected]. There is also a group page on Facebook – Waspi Dwyfor Meirionnydd.

The government is refusing to change its policy despite cross-party opposition. Even some backbench Conservative MPs support WASPI. Local women need to take action.

Yours etc, Sian Rees, co-ordinator, Waspi Dwyfor Meirionnydd.

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