By Press Release
Both newly-elected MPs for the Isle of Wight have pledged their support to a group campaigning for fair state pension compensation for women born in the 1950s.
Representatives of the Solent & Isle of Wight Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) group met with Joe Robertson (Conservative, IW East) and Richard Quigley (Labour, IW West) to discuss the issue.
Shelagh Simmons, coordinator for Solent WASPI, emphasized the significance of the meeting. “It was important for the MPs to hear about the impact unfairly implemented increases to the State Pension age has had on their 1950s-born women constituents,” she said. The group sought the MPs’ commitment to fair compensation following the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report, issued in March, which found the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guilty of maladministration and recommended compensation.
Joe Robertson expressed his support for the WASPI campaign, urging the government to make a swift decision to alleviate undue hardship caused by delays. Richard Quigley also assured the group of his ongoing support, committing to encourage the government to find a prompt and acceptable solution.
The Solent WASPI Group welcomed the MPs’ pledges to advocate for a fair and speedy remedy. The group’s members, like others across the UK, believe they have been waiting too long for justice.
Shelagh Simmons added, “After more than nine years of campaigning, during which nationally more than 293,000 WASPI women have died, the Ombudsman has placed this in Parliament’s hands. We thank Joe Robertson and Richard Quigley for their support and urge them, as parliamentarians, to do everything they can to bring about the fair compensation that justice demands. Our message to the Government is clear – please, just get on with it.”
There are almost 11,000 women on the Isle of Wight who were born in the 1950s.