WOMEN backing a national campaign for fairer changes to state pension ages brought their protests to a Gwent supermarket.

Local members of the Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign handed leaflets to shoppers outside Morrisons in Rogerstone, Newport, yesterday to raise awareness of their cause.

An acceleration in matching male and female pension ages by the UK Government now means women born on or after April 6, 1951, will have to wait longer to claim their pension - and Waspi say there was inadequate notification, particularly with those already in their 60s.

An e-petition calling on ministers to make transitional arrangements for the women affected has now reached 152,000 signatures.

Newport Waspi member Celia Jones explained: "In 1995 the Government set out a timetable to equalise the pension age for men and women at 65 - something we don't disagree with - but letters were not sent out until 2009.

"Then the coalition Government accelerated it even further. I am 62 and I will now not receive my pension for another three-and-a-half years and I am not sure I can wait that long.

"It leaves us in a difficult position - who wants to employ someone in their 60s? We are clogging up the job market for the young and there is now real hardship among people born in the 1950s."

The Waspi members were supported by Torfaen Labour MP Nick Thomas-Symonds and Welsh Labour Assembly candidate for Newport West, Jayne Bryant.

Mr Thomas-Symonds said: "The UK Government has so far refused to act to do anything to deal with this injustice. I hope they will listen and put transitional provisions in place to ease the changes that are affecting so many women."

Following a parliamentary debate on the changes earlier this month, a Government spokesman said: "The policy decision to increase women’s state pension age is designed to remove the inequality between men and women.

"The cost of prolonging this inequality would be several billions of pounds. Parliament extensively debated the issue and listened to all arguments both for and against the acceleration of the timetable to remove this inequality.

"The decision was approved by Parliament in 2011 and there is no new evidence to consider."