Brendan O’Hara Presents WASPI Petition To House of Commons

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Brendan O’Hara MP:
“The Government must right this wrong for WASPI women across Argyll and Bute”boh-waspi-oct-2016

Today (Tuesday, 11 th October), local MP Brendan O’Hara presented a petition to the House of Commons on behalf of 4,600 women across Argyll and Bute who have been hit by the government’s changes to the state pension age.

Known as the WASPI women (Women Against State Pension Inequality), they were all born on or after 6 th April 1951 and, under the 1995 and 2011 Pensions Act, will not be able to draw their pension until they are 66 years of age, a full six years later than they had planned. The WASPI campaign is not against the raising of the state pension age, but instead are calling on the government to introduce reasonable transitional arrangements, giving them adequate time to make alternative plans for their retirement; many women were given little or no notice of these changes at all.

Brendan said after presenting the petition that

“The situation that these women find themselves in, through no fault of their own, is scandalous. They have been hit twice – when the state pension age was raised to 65 in line with men and then again when it was increased for men and women to 66 years – it’s a double whammy. It is utterly shameful that this Tory government have ducked their responsibility to the WASPI women.

Pensions are not a privilege but a contract and the UK government have broken that contract”.waspi-group-photo

He went on to say,

“I was delighted to present this petition on behalf of all WASPI’s across Argyll and Bute affected by this and calling on the UK government to introduce measures that will mitigate the hardship that many of these women are now facing. I was joined by my SNP colleagues and many MPs from across the political spectrum so I hope this sends a clear signal to the government of the strength of support they have in parliament and its time that they put right this wrong.”