Durkan appointed vice-chair of new parliamentary group for women’s state pension campaign

SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan has been appointed as a vice-chair of the newly-formed All-Party Parliamentary Group on Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI). Mr Durkan (pictured) has vowed to continue the fight for compensation for women born in the 1950s who have been hit by rises to the state pension age, including in Derry and throughout the North. He said: “I am delighted to take up this new role – and pledge to do all I can to help the WASPI women take their campaign forward in parliament.

“These women are not just haphazard victims of a drive-by cut in the name of austerity; they have been carefully selected and calculated as the victims.

“They have been used to inequality and injustice all their lives; they have been on the receiving end of inequality in respect of gender pay gaps and denial of access to second pensions at a time when their male colleagues were given access to them.

“The aim of this government seems to be, ‘Let’s give them one more twist of injustice in the name of equalisation as they come to the end of their working lives’.

“That is an absolute travesty – which offers people stone for bread.

“This parliament will have conspired and connived in this injustice, which is why we have to change it and why the campaign must continue.”

Women born on or after 6 April 1951 have been hit by rapid rises in the state pension age.

It was set at 60 for women but is equalising with men’s retirement age and increasing to 66 by 2020.

In the process some 2.6 million women in Britain are losing out – leaving many dreams in tatters