WOMEN fighting back after the government told them they'd have to work an extra six years before they can receive their state pension celebrated a small victory at Monday night's council meeting in Dudley.

Members of the Wyre Forest, Midlands and Worcestershire group of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) spoke of their "delight" after Dudley Council backed a notice of motion put forward by Amblecote councillor Julie Bains urging the government to make fair transitional arrangements for women who been unfairly hit by the planned increase to the state pension age.

Cllr Baines said she was among the hundreds of thousands of women across the country - born on or after April 1951 - who have had significant changes imposed upon them by the Pensions Acts of 1995 and 2011, with as little as two years notice of a six-year increase to the state pension age.

She said: "Many women born in the 1950s are living in hardship. Retirement plans have been shattered with devastating consequences. Many of these women are already out of the labour market, caring for elderly relatives, providing childcare for grandchildren, or suffer discrimination in the workplace so struggle to find employment.

"These women have worked hard, raised a family and paid their tax and national insurance with the expectation they would be financially secure when reaching 60. It is not the pension age itself that is in dispute - it is widely accepted that women and men should retire at the same time. The issue is that the rise in women's state pension age has been too rapid and has happened without sufficient notice being given to women affected, leaving no time to make alternative arrangements."

Councillors across all parties unanimously agreed to back the motion, which WASPI campaigners said marked the first time a Midlands council had shown support for their pleas for fairer deal.

Councillor Keiran Casey said: "As a result of these changes nearly 70,000 women across the Black Country born in the 1950s have found themselves without the pension they believed they would rightly receive.

"This really shows a lack of respect by the government for those who have worked hard all their lives and paid into the system, I very much welcome this motion and support it."

Lyn Matthews, of the Wyre Forest, Midlands and Worcestershire WASPI group, said: "This is the first Midlands council to back us. We're very, very pleased."

WASPI campaigner Kate Creed from Stourbridge said she was "absolutely thrilled and delighted" at the support from Dudley Council and she also told the News: "What makes it so unfair is that some women did not have the luxury of joining private pensions in the 1970s as it was still a time of great inequality.

"They now find themselves working when they thought they could retire and the advice for those that can't work for health reasons or have been made redundant is to get Jobseekers' Allowance and sign on each week. What Dickensian treatment to those that have contributed to the system for many years.

"We had an agreement and the government changed the rules without informing us."

Meanwhile - Dudley MP Ian Austin was due to present a petition in Parliament today (Tuesday October 11) protesting about the rushed increase to the state pension age for women.

More than 600 people from the Dudley borough have signed the petition - expressing fury at Government plans to accelerate retirement age for women to 66 by 2020, instead of 2026 as originally planned.

Mr Austin said: "The overwhelming response to this petition just goes to show how important it is to local people.

"Women who have worked hard and contributed should be able to plan for their retirement, but the Government's rapid changes to the pension age have made this impossible.

"This is particularly important in the Black Country where lots of people left school at 15 or 16 and did hard graft, instead of graduating in their mid-20s to start office work."

The Labour MP, who has raised the issue with ministers on behalf of constituents, hopes the petition will encourage the Government to "listen and change these plans".