Anne Mackie, 62, believed she would receive her state pension at 60.

Having taken an early retirement package from the MOD at 56 she looked forward to her future and her retirement plans.

However, due to UK government changes to the state pension, Anne, from Helensburgh, now has to wait until she is 66 to receive the pension she worked her whole life to save for.

“I’m now working part-time doing care work,” she told the Lennox Herald.

“It’s really hard work and part-time is as much as I really can cope with but I need to do something.”

Anne, who helped to found the Argyll and Isles WASPI campaign group, knows her story is not unique.

Last week, over 400 women from across Dumbarton, the Vale and Helensburgh met at the Concord Community Centre for a meeting with WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) coordinators.

The meeting, which had been organised by local MSP Jackie Baillie, aimed to help inform women who have been affected by UK government changes to the state pension age between 1995 and 2011, which have left them working longer and tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket.

The changes were first introduced in 1995 in a national bid to bring women’s pension age in line with men’s.

This would have originally seen them working five years longer, to 65, before being entitled to a basic state pension.

However, in 2011 the government pushed their retirement age to 66.

The government responded to strong opposition by giving affected women an extra six months’ worth of pension.

But some received pensions earlier – leading to confusion among others who feel they have been unfairly treated.

Many women say they weren’t told about the reform at the time and were left in financial limbo just before retiring.

Having initially believed 90 women would attend last Monday’s meeting, Jackie, who is also chairwoman of the cross-party group of WASPI women at Holyrood, told the Lennox Herald she was delighted with the turn out.

She said: “Word of mouth has meant that hundreds turned up. We had to move halls, put out more chairs and in the end there was standing room only.

“That, to me, shows how important this is to women born in the 1950s – they are taking this really seriously because their pensions are being taken from them by the UK government.

“They want to fight this change and we will help them do so and we need them to start speaking up themselves.

“Judging by today’s actions they are fired up to do so.”

Helensburgh woman Ann Greer, a former employee of Dumbarton District Women’s Aid, helped to co-found the Argyll and Isles WASPI group after discovering she would not receive her pension until the age of 66.

Ann said: “I worked for the community of West Dunbartonshire for over 20 years. I took voluntary redundancy from my job as a counsellor in 2014.

“My job, counselling women affected by rape and childhood sexual abuse, ceased to exist in Women’s Aid locally.

“I had, at that point, received no notification that I would not be receiving my state pension until 66.

“Part of the reason I became involved in the campaign, the following year, is due to having supported women living in the local area.

“Not having an independent income for up to six years (when many thought they would be retiring at 60) can exacerbate domestic abuse.”

Elizabeth McQuade, 63, of Dumbarton thought the meeting had been an encouraging step forward. She said: “I feel that this is saying that there needs to be more action.

“People need to be aware of this inequality.

“I received information about the 1995 change and I thought I would get my pension at 64 but now I need to wait until I’m 66.

“There’s three months between my birthday and a girl I work with but she will get her pension a year in September and I need to wait until two years in January. The way they have divided it is really unfair.”

Pat Crawford, another co-founder of Argyll and Isles WASPI group added: “I finally got my pension in November at long, long last, but it won’t stop me from fighting for others.

“I’m 64 and a half. I had to work and pay national insurance for four years longer than I expected. I would have expected to get my pension at 60.

“Of course I did not have the information letting me know I wouldn’t get it which is rather shocking. I received a letter from the DWP around 2011 with very limited information in it, and it had my wrong date of birth so it didn’t apply.

“I always just assumed that because you knew you were getting a pension all your life, there didn’t seem any reason to write to them asking for a forecast.”

A speaker at last week’s meeting, Anne Potter, launched a solo campaign in March 2016 after seeing women in England on TV fighting the pension changes.

Realising she was affected in the same way as them, she got in contact and was encouraged to launch a Glasgow-based WASPI group.

The branch now covers Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire and Anne says she never imagined she would become a campaigner.

She told the Lennox Herald: “This has been a wonderful turnout today and we really need more members.

“I never thought I would see myself walking about Westminster with a banner – it’ has been a bit of a wake up call.

“I thought if nobody else is going to do it I will. I was incensed.”

Anne was joined by Rosie Dickson, a Glasgow director for WASPI UK.

Speaking to the crowded Concord Centre, Rosie said: “If the DWP are inundated with a tsunami of letters they will start to sit up and take notice.

“We have never been on a level playing field. We will be the generation who have paid national insurance for longer than any other generation.

“The fact is that life expectancy in the West of Scotland is shorter than anywhere else in the UK. So we are actually getting more done than anybody else.

“One of the things going for us now is that there is a minority government. The DUP have backed the WASPI women, we have Labour, the SNP and also some rebel Tories.”

Addressing the meeting, Jackie Baillie added: “I’ve heard from one women who started work when she was 14-years-old.

“She thought she was lucky because she had a state pension. She now has to go out to work at the age of 63.

“There are women having to sign on because of this.

“I want to praise the work of WASPI groups across the country.

“I know marching on the streets is not for everybody but there is real power in your collective voice which needs to get heard.”

To find out more information, or to access template letters to your
MP, visit the WASPI Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Dunbartonshire Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/175902486137322/

For more information about WASPI Argyll and Isles visit: http://www.waspi.co.uk/argyll-isles or contact argyllisleswaspi@mail.com.

For more local news click here .