Plaid Cymru Members of Parliament for Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Ynys Môn, Liz Saville Roberts and Llinos Medi have expressed their anger at the UK Labour government’s decision to reject calls for compensation for women adversely affected by changes to the State Pension age, following the publication of its long‑awaited review.
Mrs Saville Roberts who co-founded the Dwyfor Meirionnydd WASPI group in 2017 and Ms Medi, said the decision represents a profound moral failure and a devastating betrayal of hundreds of thousands of women who planned their working lives around a pension age that was later altered with inadequate notice.
Many affected women experienced sudden income loss, were forced to remain in physically demanding work, exhaust savings, or rely on benefits after pension age changes were implemented without sufficient communication. The pension changes have affected nearly seven thousand women across Dwyfor Meirionnydd.
The changes have affected 11,550 women across Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Ynys Môn.
Commenting, Liz Saville Roberts MP and Llinos Medi MP said:
Today’s announcement from the UK Government is deeply disappointing and will understandably cause great anger among 1950s born women across both Dwyfor Meirionnydd and Ynys Môn, who have been repeatedly let down by successive UK governments. Changes to the state pension age were poorly communicated, rushed through, and fundamentally unfair, leaving 11,550 women in our constituencies facing financial hardship and uncertainty through no fault of their own. These women worked, paid into the system, and played by the rules as they were told. Changing those rules late in the game and then refusing compensation is indefensible. We have stood alongside these women from the outset, campaigning alongside them for justice and compensation. The very same Labour Party that is now in government once agreed that these women deserved redress yet has now turned its back on those commitments. Elected on a promise of change they have instead continued a pattern of broken promises. This issue transcends party politics – it’s about fairness and trust. An apology without compensation is no justice at all, and women in my constituency and beyond deserve far more than words – they deserve fair redress and just compensation.