My constituents have contacted me about ensuring the rights of older women.
Older women play a significant role in our communities, including as teachers, healthcare professionals, and church leaders. We all know an older woman in our lives who gets on with their work or care responsibilities with minimal fuss. On Mothering Sunday, I took the opportunity to mark the everyday contribution made by mothers and grandmothers in Beverley and Holderness.
Unfortunately, older women are being betrayed by this Government. Ministers have driven women’s pensions into uncertainty, scrapped Women’s Health Hubs, and failed to improve access to menopause treatments.
One of the first acts of this Government has been to scrap the Winter Fuel Payment for millions of pensioners. Unless in receipt of Pension Credit or other means-tested benefits, the Government announced that millions will no longer receive annual Winter Fuel Payments, representing losses of up to £300 for around 10 million pensioners.
Historical differences and inequalities in patterns of work and pay between men and women have created a gap between the median male and female private pension wealth. Put simply, more women rely on the State Pension. I firmly believe that female pensioners must be afforded dignity and respect in retirement, and I am deeply concerned that the Government’s recent changes to the Winter Fuel Allowance directly impact millions of women.
Likewise, the Government is failing on women’s health. I was proud to stand on a manifesto committed to prioritising women’s health and expanding Women’s Health Hubs. In contrast, Government Ministers have chosen to remove the target for a Women’s Health Hub to be established in every health board in England, a move described as “self-defeating” by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Moreover, only 24 per cent of women aged 40 to 60 say their employer has a menopause policy in place, and one in six women between the ages of 40 and 60 consider leaving work because of a lack of support. Despite previous pledges, Ministers have announced nothing to end the postcode lottery of access to hormone replacement therapy.
