Harriet Harman visits Consett, County Durham (From The Northern Echo)

Harriet Harman visits Consett, County Durham

6:46pm Thursday 28th February 2013 in News By Gavin Havery, Reporter (Derwentside & Tyneside)

WOMEN from the North-East have discussed issues they face later in their working lives with one of the country’s leading female politicians.

Harriet Harman MP, deputy leader of the Labour Party and Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, attended the event aimed at older women at Derwentside College in Consett, County Durham, tonight. (Thursday, February 28).

The session forms part of consultations carried out by the Labour Party’s Older Women’s Commission which is examining how a future government could help promote older women in the workplace, in public life and ensure financial stability in retirement.

Mrs Harman said: “Most of the women here have had lives very different from their mothers. There is a big change in what women have done and they expect.

“They are much healthier than their mothers were at this age and there is a spirit of belief in themselves.

“They do not want to be just written off so this is about finding out how public policy can speak up for women of this generation.”

The meeting highlighted recent House of Commons Library research, which reveals 21,900 women across the North-East and Cumbria are set to lose out due to the current Government’s pension reforms.

Women born in 1952 and 1953 will not be eligible for the single tier pension since they are due to retire in 2017, before the state pension reforms come into effect but men born during the same period will qualify.

Mrs Harman was joined by North-West Durham Labour MP Pat Glass, who said: “We have lots of policies concerning childcare and that sort of thing aimed at younger women, but are increasingly finding older women who are being presented with lots of different challenges.”