Women born in the 1950s who feel they’ve lost out on years of their state pension made their voices heard on International Women’s Day - and several Swindon women were among them.
The women who call themselves WASPI women, which stands for Women Against State Pension inequality, staged a protest at Parliament Square on Wednesday.
They hope to change the government’s mind on compensation for what they say is thousands of pounds denied to them.
They say they lost out when the law on pensions was changed in 1995, and then in 2010, moving the age of paying women the state pension to 65, and then up to 67, without adequate warning and leaving them unable to increase their contributions.
Jennifer Cleverley, 59 from Gorse Hill, was one from Swindon getting on a train to take her to the nationwide protest, all dressed in the protest’s colours of mauve and lilac.
She said: “There’s a handful of us from Swindon. And we’re meeting up on the train with a group form Swansea.
"But there are women coming from all over the country, from Edinburgh, from cities in the north, from every part of the country.
"There will be thousands of us and we’re going to make our voice heard.”
Jennifer said she was badly affected by the change in the law, like thousands of women: “Nobody told us that we would have to work an extra six years. We didn’t get a letter, I found out watching the news on TV that I’d have to work another six years.”
Although a legal challenge in the High Court against that government decision failed in 2019, a complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman has been investigated with the findings that there was some maladministration by the government over the issue.
Jennifer said: “We’ve raised enough money now to take a challenge back to the High Court to seek a judicial review.
Speaking to the LDR from the protest in Parliament Square later Jennifer said: “It’s been very wet, but brilliant.”
North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson was a minister in the Department for Work & Pensions from 2018 to 2021.
He said: “State pension age equalisation was agreed under the last Labour government with cross-party support to provide a sustainable system that treats men and women equally.
“In response to the long fought WASPI campaign, the government adopted £1bn worth of additional concessions benefiting almost a quarter of a million women.”
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