WOMEN across Devon are planning a mass demonstration in London on Wednesday, June 29, to protest the lack of information given to women about their pensions.

The protest is designed to coincide with the anniversary of the day that Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst marched to the Houses of Parliament on June 29, 1909, to deliver a petition to Prime Minister Asquith.

Women from all over Devon are among the national Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign. Ceri Jaynes from Kingsbridge, explained the reasons for the campaign in January.

She explained that in 1995, the Government made the decision that from 2020, the age at which a woman could receive a state pension would move in line with men to 65.

Ceri said: ‘Bringing about equality in pensions between the sexes is fair, no one has a problem with that’. But the way the changes have been brought in is the issue, leaving women with no time to adjust to the changes.

In 2011, the coalition government decided that the new pension age of 65 would be brought in two years earlier in 2018 and for both sexes it would rise to 66 in 2020.

The problem arises because Ceri claims few women were told about either of these changes.

‘Every financial consultant insists that the most important thing about pension planning is to start early’ said Ceri, ‘and to ensure that it is on track so that you can enjoy the retirement that you expect.

‘Well, I followed all of that advice. I worked from the day that I left education and paid all of my “stamps”. In March 2012 I wrote to the Pension Service for confirmation that I would receive the full state pension that I expected on reaching my 60th birthday in January 2015. I was shocked at the reply.

‘My state pension of £130.15 per week would be due on January 28, 2021, my 66th birthday. The state pension formed the bedrock of my retirement plans. Why had date of its receipt changed six years? How could I manage to make up the shortfall of £40,000?’

A Mass Choir of 200 women - joined by MPs - will gather opposite the Houses of Parliament to sing the WASPI anthem, which was released in April this year, together with the protestors on the pavements outside Parliament.

A spokesman for WASPI said he event aims to ‘highlight to the wider public the hardship and unfairness suffered by women born in the 1950s, on or after April 6, 1951, as a result of the Government’s alterations to the State Pension Age and, in particular, the lack of notice given to the changes, by the Department for Work and Pensions.

‘WASPI does not object to the increase in the women’s SPA, but represents a cohort of women who have been unfairly disadvantaged by the speed of the increase, compounded by the absence of notice provided by successive Governments. In many cases, this has resulted in enormous hardship, with devastating consequences.’

The Devon WASPI Supporters Group have organised a coach running from Honiton, picking up at Exeter and Tiverton, and call for women in Devon to join the demonstration on 29 June and join the Local Group. Email: [email protected] for coach and group details or visit the website: www.waspi.co.uk