Women Against State Pension Inequality

Part of 3. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition (in respect of his 'law officer' responsibilities – in the Senedd at 12:39 pm on 1 July 2020.

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Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 12:39, 1 July 2020

Well, I thank Helen Mary Jones for that further question, and, if I may say, for the constructive way in which she's engaged throughout on this question, as have other Members as well, of course. The case that she invites me to make is the case that we have been making as a Government to UK Government Ministers. I think I'm right in saying that the last letter that we wrote advocating this position didn't even get a reply, as it happens, but the contents of it will not have been new to the UK Government; we have consistently made the case for intervention on the grounds of equity in this question. 

She links, I think, in a very important way the experience of the women who are affected with the experience of the last few months and the impact of coronavirus, which has been disproportionate on many of those women. Women are overrepresented in sectors that have been subject to lockdown, for example, and there will be women who are not able to work, but also not getting access to their pensions, who will feel a particular financial burden as a consequence of the confluence of those two things. And I do think that that puts a special obligation on the UK Government to act in these particular circumstances, and, along with her, I very much hope that they will do so.