PLAID Cymru AM Helen Mary Jones has raised the plight of women born in the 1950s denied their pensions by the Westminster Government when the state pension age was equalised.
The Mid and West AM quizzed the Welsh Government’s chief legal adviser the Counsel General in the Senedd.
The issue is estimated to impact on 5,400 women in the Llanelli constituency, and has been debated a great deal during the Westminster campaign with rival parties putting forward their own policies.
Mid and West Assembly Member Helen Mary Jones said:
“We have an estimated 195,000 women across Wales affected by this issue with over 41,000 in the region that I represent.
“I’m calling on the Welsh Government, given the impact of that loss of income to Wales from those women who are not receiving those pensions, to look again to see if there’s any way they can provide support to the legal appeal about the decision to change the state pension age without proper notification.”
Following the discussion in the Senedd Helen Mary Jones added:
“I am disappointed by the big UK parties’ response to the issue during this Westminster campaign. The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats refusing to act to sort the problem they created is unacceptable. The Conservative manifesto has give away policies, but not for the women that paid in and should be paid out. At least Labour is acknowledging there is an issue, but for many of the 1950s women the compensation proposals do not go far enough. The whole point of pensions is that it is a universal benefit and that is what these women are entitled to.”
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