WOMEN in Inverclyde face losing up to £35,000 because of changes to the state pension age.

Almost 4,000 females who were born in the 1950s will be hit hard by reforms being introduced by the UK Government, leaving them hugely out of pocket despite working all their lives.

The Pensions Act 2011 accelerated the timetable for increases in women’s state pension age in the UK.

It will rise from 63 to 65 between this year and November 2018 and from 65 to 66 by October 2020.

Around 3,900 women in Inverclyde are believed to be affected by these changes.

Now more than 400 signatures have been collected by the local campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), who are joining forces with females across the UK in calling for the government to delay the changes.

Lynda Murray, 62, who lives in Greenock, said: “Now we don’t know until we get our pension what it’s going to be.

“It’s an injustice - it’s robbery.

“If you count it, it’s £35,000 over five years.

“That’s a lot of money.”

Circumstances vary for each person but typically women born in the 1950s will have to work around five more years until they are 65 or 66.

Marie Howie, who is also 62 and lives in Port Glasgow, said: “Personally I feel my retirement is now on hold.

“The majority of us have worked since we were 15 and did pay into the system and helped keep previous pensioners in their retirement and now this age group has been plucked out and told ‘we can’t pay you’.

“If it wasn’t for the help of Ronnie Cowan trying to help us through I don’t know where we would be.”

Mr Cowan has gathered the petitions from his constituents and is expected to present them in the House of Commons tomorrow along with fellow MPs from around the country.

He said: “The WASPI campaign has been run by these women and they have run it absolutely superbly.

“All I can do as a parliamentarian is bring some volume to what they are doing and if all MPs are listening to their constituents like I am then they should be handing in this petition as well.

“If everyone does that then the government will have to listen.”