LETTERS: Our readers have their say on disabled parking, the EU and state pension age

WASPI is an action group campaigning against the unfair changes to the State Pension Age (SPA), imposed upon women born on or after April 6, 1951 (and how the changes were implemented). This includes both the 1995 and 2011 Acts.

Women have seen their pension age changed twice with little or no notification. Retirement plans have been shattered with some women having to sell their homes in order to survive. Quite a few women in their sixties now find themselves on the job market due to redundancy or other reasons and are having difficulty finding work, as there is still a lot of ageism in the workplace.

JSA (Jobseekers’ Allowance), if you qualify, can only be claimed for six months and then it is means tested resulting in no income at all until they reach state pension age for those who have a small private pension or some savings.

Most are having to live on these savings in order to survive. These women have worked for more than 40 years and will therefore have nothing to show for it.

The quick acceleration of the second rise in state pension brought in by the 2011 pension act means that women born post-April 1953 had four months added to their pension age for every month born which results in women born in the same year who left school at the same time (aged 15 for most) now have a difference of more than three years in their State Pension age.

For instance, my friend born on April 1, 1953 has her state pension, bus pass and fuel allowance now while I was born just six months later and have to wait until March 2018. Almost two years later.

As this act was brought in 2011, women who were approaching their sixties then had no time to prepare for the increase.

To be clear WASPI does not want to undo the 1995 Pension Act. It is unfair that because of this, WASPI’s concerns and requests for “fair transitional state pension arrangements” are being dismissed and taken out of context. It is unfortunate that the government continues to misinterpret this.

There is a group for Castleford and surrounding areas named Castleford Waspis which also attended this demo last month in London.

They had pre-arranged to meet up with Pontefract and Castleford MP Yvette Cooper after the demonstration. Ms Cooper is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group set up to help the WASPI Women and has been very supportive throughout.

The group’s next meeting is at 5.30pm on July 7 at The Junction pub on Carlton Street, Castleford. Please come along and join us, or find us on Facebook under Castleford Waspis. You can also message us on Facebook.

Lynne Bell

On behalf of Castleford

WASPIS

parking

Don’t park in disabled spaces

Having driven into Pontefract on Sunday afternoon I was shocked to say the least at finding cars without a blue disabled badge on their dashboard that had been parked in clearly-marked disabled spaces.

The ignorance of these people assuming that just because it was Sunday they could park in disabled spaces was totally unbelievable. I have a blue disabled badge and I find it harder to find a disabled parking space which helps me enormously, so may I please ask people not to park in these spaces? Think of the old expression: There for the grace of God go I.

S Garnham

Wrights Lane, Criddling Stubbs

EU

Whole team responsible

Neil Aspland from Pontefract has stated that Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are the people responsible for the UK leaving the EU; the EU leave vote is the responsibility of the entire vote leave team.

Whether that proves to have been the right decision for the UK only time will tell, it will take years.

But right now the FTSE All-Share Index is down 145 points from its high in July 2015.

I know the BBC like to quote the FTSE 100, but that has more international companies, not as a good barometer of the UK economy.

N Bywater

Oak Grove, Morley

brexit

Unite again

In light of the results of the EU referendum in the Wakefield Council area it is patently obvious that our local MPs are out of touch with a large majority of their constituents.

As David Cameron is resigning as captain of the ship because he feels he isn’t the right person to steer it to it’s next destination (and rightly so), maybe Yvette Cooper, Mary Creagh and Jon Trickett should consider jumping ship as well, because the boat isn’t going in the direction they want it to either.

Britain needs to show a united front to Europe by all political parties in the forthcoming negotiations. They can do it; as shown in their united attempt to convince us to vote to stay in.

Lewis M Jodrell

Snydale Close, Normanton