WOMEN across the Black Country and Wyre Forest who say they have been unfairly hit by plans to increase the state pension age took their campaign to Westminster.

Members of the WASPI Voice Wyre Forest and Worcestershire joined the Combined Women's Action Group march from Waterloo tube station to the Houses of Parliament last Tuesday (February 21).

Angered at being told they will have to work an extra six years before they can receive their state pension – the women are calling on the government to make fairer transitional arrangements for those affected by the changes to the pension age through the Pensions Acts of 1995 and 2011.

Those taking part in the march were joined by MPs Mhairi Black, Barbara Keeley, Tracy Brabin and Diana Johnson and many campaigners were also hoping to meet their own constituency MPs at Westminster to highlight the plight of the thousands of women born on or after April 1951 who will face financial hardship as a result of the changes.

Kate Creed from Stourbridge, of the Dudley and Wyre Forest WASPI Voice group, said: "We had a marvellous day. There were a few hundred that marched across the bridge to Westminster and there was an excellent turnout of MPs."

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Campaigners hoping to meet Margot James, however, were not able to as the Stourbridge MP, who is parliamentary under secretary of state for the department for business, energy and industrial strategy, was tied up on ministerial business.

She did, however, agree to meet some of the campaigners at her open surgery in Stourbridge’s Crown Centre on Saturday (February 25) to discuss the Government plan to accelerate retirement age for women to 66 by 2020, instead of 2026 as originally planned.

To find out more about the campaign go to www.waspi.co.uk or check out WASPI Voice Wyre Forest, Midlands and Worcestershire on Facebook or email waspivoicecentral@gmail.com.