YORK Central MP Rachael Maskell has backed local campaigners against changes to pensions for women born in the 1950s.

She helped collect signatures in Bishopthorpe Road on Saturday for a mass public petition organised by WASPI - Women Against State Pension Inequality.

She intends to hand the petition in at Parliament on Tuesday.

Ms Maskell said many women born on or after April 6, 1951, had been unfairly hit by an increase in the state pension age.

“Due to a lack of information many have been entirely unaware of the changes, leaving them without adequate support, or time to put their own arrangements in place,” she said.

York Press:

“I believe that these changes to pensions should be introduced in a transitional way.

"Whilst it is absolutely right to equalise pension age, the way the Government are going about implementing these changes in such an arbitrary way is completely unfair.”