Janet Haley

Transcript by Jayde Stevenson

I saw an article in The Cornish Guardian, uh, two ladies who’d, uh, found out that they weren’t gonna get their pension and they were organising a meeting. So, I said right, that’s something I’ve gotta get involved in, cos it affects me, and I don’t know who to complain to or where to start, so if there’s more of us complaining, they’re gonna take more notice than just one individual voice. So, I went down to that meeting and joined a couple of different groups since that time, um, and now ended up as a coordinator for the Kernow group, and encouraging people to write letters which we’ve been doing to the DWP- Department of Work and Pensions- for maladministration- for not notifying us of this 6-year change in our pension age.

Well, we’ve got two avenues at the moment. We’ve got Parliamentary Ombudsman which has stepped in because the delays in all the processes we have to go through… it’s just like in a workplace- if you’ve got a complaint, you’ve got to go through all the proper steps before you can complain to the top. I’m helping several others who are not proficient in doing their letters or don’t have a computer, don’t have anything like that- no techo ideas whatsoever, so I’ve been helping several with that and with going through all the stages with them. But um yes, so we’ve got the Parliamentary Ombudsman, which we’re hoping- this will deal with the case of maladministration, but it won’t uh, give us any transitional arrangements, which is what we’re hoping for with the APPG… it…. They’re doing their best to help us but it’s another 12 months delay, and everything is delays all the time. And there’s some ladies who just won’t get… won’t see their pension. There was one last year, she wanted the WASPI (Women Against the State Pension Inequality) banner put on her coffin when she was… had her funeral and that’s what happened. And thats gonna happen with many more.

So, we’re just in limbo really. We’re fighting, we’re doing our letters, we’re doing awareness days, which is letting a lot more people know. Every time I get the letter in the paper with my phone number in or the Kernow WASPI’s email address, I get more calls- ‘oh I’ve been wondering what to do about this, how can I do something? How can I shout about it? What do I do? Can I join you?’ – ‘Yes certainly, you have got to stand up and fight for your rights. The suffragettes did it 100 years ago- they took over 30 years to get the vote and then it was only a partial one for over 30’s and land… property owners, but it was a huge, huge step, and we want a huge step as well’. Huge one to highlight this injustice. They cannot ignore us forever. 

 Link to WASPI website- https://www.waspi.co.uk