Durkan urges Derry people to sign ‘state pension justice for women’ petition

SDLP Foyle MP Mark Durkan is urging people in Derry and throughout the North to sign up to an online petition calling for justice for women born in the 1950s who have been hit by state pension age rises.

Mr Durkan (pictured) was speaking after joining MPs in the British House of Commons who voted in favour of compensating the women who are facing a higher pension age than they expected – but the campaign continues and thus far there has been a poor number of signatories to the petition from people from Northern Ireland.

The Commons debate centred around the fact that some 2.6 million women in the UK had their state pension age delayed – in some cases twice, and by up to six years in total – without proper notice, leaving them no time to adequately prepare for their later retirement date.

Mr Durkan, who had joined the proposer of the motion, Scottish Nationalist MP MP Mhairi Black, in securing the Backbench Business Committee at Westminster to request the debate, said he welcomed the vote in favour of helping women hit particularly hard by significant changes to their state pension age.

Mr Durkan added: “If we had failed to pass this motion, we would have been saying that those women are an acceptable casualty on the way to equality – and we cannot accept invidious treatment in the name of equality.

“These changes were imposed with a lack of appropriate notification and were essentially ‘a drive-by hit’ by the government on their pension rights.

“After paying into their pensions all their working lives, these women – not least in Derry and throughout the North – simply do not deserve delays to their state pension.

“I would therefore urge people to sign the online petition at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/110776 to put pressure on the British government to compensate those women who have unfairly borne the burden of the increase to the state pension age.

“The numbers of signatories to the petition have been low in Derry and throughout the North – which could reflect that people are unaware of the significant changes being imposed on them.”

Mr Durkan concluded: “While this campaign continues it is important a strong message is sent to government Ministers that this is an issue which is not going to go away.”

Women's state pension age was 60 but is increasing to 66 by 2020, in line with rising life expectations, a change that many who were born in the 1950s were not informed of.

The online petition at the Parliamentary website passed the 115,000 mark today – which could also lead to a fresh Commons debate on the issue.