10. United Kingdom Independence Party Debate: The Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:27 pm on 18 April 2018.

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Photo of Nick Ramsay Nick Ramsay Conservative 6:27, 18 April 2018

Yes. As I said earlier, Rhianon, like other AMs, I've had approaches from WASPI women constituents and I've been happy to say to the UK Government, 'Look, this doesn't look like it's worked out particularly well and I think you should look again at this.' Like all of us here, I'm not in the UK Government. I am here as a Welsh Assembly Member, so as the Welsh Government don't have a direct role to play in this, I don't either, but nonetheless, we all have Members of Parliament who represent our areas, so I hope that we would all pass on our concerns.

There was a rationale back then behind the changes. It was to meet EU equality laws—probably not going to be so important for too long into the future, now, but that was the reason back then. There was a need to keep pensions on a sustainable footing with an ageing population and I think that was some of the reason behind some of the changes that were made in 2010-11. So, there were reasons there, but clearly something has gone wrong with the communication through this process. I'm more than happy, Rhianon—and I would like other Members to know—to pass on my concerns to the UK Government. I think we are where we are, but let's keep the pressure up to see that these women who are affected are given the support they need, that they are allowed to work in the ways and for the length of time they need to make sure that they don't go into their latter years, into older age, suffering, because that wasn't the original intention and that certainly shouldn't be the case.