The 1950s Women of Wales campaigners are ‘not going away’ until a historic financial injustice has been put right - the Pembrokeshire and Carmarthen West Group of WASPI has stated.

“1950s Women of Wales are fed up of the excuses made by the UK Government,” said local organiser of the campaign Jackie Gilderdale.

“We will not hesitate to apply for mandated Mediation under the Civil Procedures Rule 2024, if the Pensions Minister continues to ignore our repeated invitation to attend mediation with us & representatives of all 50s women groups. Is the Pensions Minister, Liz Kendall MP afraid of the Law?

“What happened to Labours debt of honour? We are not going away, until this historical justice has been resolved,” she continued.

Plaid Cymru has once again called on the Labour Welsh Government to act on historical pension injustices and support victims of these scandals, with a spokesperson for the party stating this week: “Stop the excuses and time wasting and just pay up – pension injustices must be put right”.

It’s been a busy month for the largest 50s women’s group in Wales, the 1950s Women of Wales, starting with an exchange at the Senedd on May 13 between Plaid Cymru SM, Delyth Jewell, a champion for 50s women and the newly appointed Counsel General, Julie James SM.

Delyth opened up the floor by stating: “There are many groups of people who have been denied justice by Westminster, of course, and the 1950s women are amongst them. Women born in the 1950s were denied their state pensions at the time they needed that support.

“Many women have died without receiving the money. It is a bitter injustice and they deserve redress”.

Delyth went on to call for mediation under Civil Procedures Rule 2024, between the women impacted and the Department for Work and Pensions. She asked for the Welsh Government to encourage for that to happen at a UK level.

She also said that a public inquiry should be held, similar to what has happened with sub-postmasters and that these women are tired of waiting and they deserve this wrong to be made right.

“The response from the new Counsel General left the 50s Women of Wales completely floored, as she clearly showed that she doesn’t understand what’s has actually happened in the decade long campaign. She said the courts looked at the case and said it was lawful,” continued Jackie.

“However, as a reminder to Counsel General and all politicians involved the High Court & Court of Appeal did support the actions of DWP! What they did was dismiss the claims of the judicial review.

“This is a very different matter, for the JR is a distinctive process which relies on particular grounds - so it is sweeping, in the extreme, to say that dismissal of those grounds, means that the courts supported DWP actions.

“Both the High Court and Court of Appeal considered all grounds reviewable, in each case referring all grounds to the court above for appeal. Contrary to this referral, the Supreme Court heard none of the grounds, concluding that the matter was "out of time".

“In the High Court/Court of Appeal the Secretary's evidence was that 'all stakeholders' were consulted prior to the Pensions Act 1995 being formulated or passing through the parliamentary process.

“This was untrue: 1950s women, the most relevant 'stakeholder' group, was never consulted and no impact assessment was ever undertaken.

“Once it was accepted (as the Courts did) that 'stakeholders' had a right to be consulted, the failure to consult 1950s women breached their right to consultation.Thus, there has never been any actual final outcome in the Courts.

“The government was in breach of the #EqualityAct 2010 on the same basis (which should take precedence over the earlier Acts according to legislative interpretation) and the European Convention on Human Rights,” she added.

The 1950s Women of Wales highly recommends that the Counsel General makes time to read all the reports and evidence held by the APPG, whereby she will also note that 90% of women were not aware of the state pension age changes, which she told the Senedd at the plenary; and that her Party, as in UK Labour misled Parliament just before Christmas 2024, with what were basically lies.