It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Hosie. I congratulate the hon. Member for Delyn (Rob Roberts) on securing this incredibly important debate.
We have rightly spoken a lot over the past few months about how deeply people have been affected throughout this pandemic—people who have lost jobs, businesses that are worried that they are going under and the 3 million people who have not been able to access covid support. I am here today to speak up for my pension-age constituents who are struggling too.
As we have heard, since 2010 at least an extra 400,000 pensioners have been pushed into poverty, and a generation of women born in the 1950s were betrayed. That left millions of women with no time to make alternative plans, with sometimes devastating personal consequences, including for people I have spoken to in Luton North. The people who have written to me have done the right thing in life: they paid into the system and worked hard, and now they want their Government to be there when they need it. They include people such as my mum and her generation of friends—the WASPI women.
One Luton North constituent wrote:
“I am 65 years old and I am due to receive my state pension next year—at the age of 66.
I am currently struggling financially. I was due to receive my pension at the age of 60. I have worked my whole life and then I stopped as I became a carer for my elderly mother.
I am not entitled to apply for any benefits. With the current covid pandemic it is even more difficult for me to consider working. I suffer from a lot of health problems. I was diagnosed with TB last year and since had been receiving treatment for it.
I have never struggled so much financially before as I am now and the pandemic has made it even worse for me.”
I wish I could say that that was a one-off, Minister, but I am afraid that my inbox has been full of similar letters.