MPs are set to debate ‘support for women in poverty’ on Thursday afternoon following an application from DUP MP Jim Shannon to the Backbench Business Committee. The cross-party Committee of eight MPs includes SNP MP Patricia Gibson and Labour’s Kate Osborne.
Both MPs have recently urged the UK Government to put forward an "urgent" compensation package for an estimated 3.8million women born in the 1950s who have been affected by changes to the State Pension age. Mr Shannon is also a vocal supporter of the WASPI campaign [Women Against State Pension Inequality].
On making his application, Mr Shannon, said: “Poverty has affected many people in the United Kingdom, but women in particular have been affected in a very difficult way. Figures indicate that 22 per cent have a persistent low income, denying women the opportunity to build up savings and assets to fall back on in times of hardship.”
He continued: “Figures from the Fawcett Society show that 64 per cent of the lowest paid workers are women, painting a picture of a very difficult and perhaps tragic scenario in the United Kingdom today.”
The Backbench Business Committee is a committee responsible for choosing the business of the House on a set number of days a year. It meets weekly on Tuesdays to consider requests for debates from any backbench Members of Parliament on any subject.
General debates let MPs debate a subject without committing the House to an opinion or course of action.
Members of the Backbench Business Committee
- Ian Mearns (Chair), Labour MP for Gateshead
- Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East
- Patricia Gibson, SNP MP for North Ayrshire and Arran
- Nigel Mills, Conservative MP for Amber Valley
- Wendy Morton, Conservative MP for Aldridge-Brownhills
- Kate Osborne, Labour MP for Jarrow
- Chris Green, Conservative MP for Bolton West
- Kevin Foster, Conservative MP for Torbay
You can watch the debate live on Parliament TV from 3pm on Thursday, March 23.
To keep up to date with the outcome of this debate, join our Money Saving Scotland Facebook page here, follow us on Twitter @Record_Money, or subscribe to our newsletter which goes out Monday to Friday - sign up here.
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