PENSIONS campaigners in Ammanford and the Amman Valley have asked their MP Jonathan Edwards to support early access to pensions - freeing up more than one million jobs for younger people.

The ladies of Ammanford's Women Against State Pension Injustice (WASPI) claim that up to 1.5 million job vacancies throughout the UK could be created if women in their 60s were allowed to access their state pensions early and retire from work.

Susan Hughes, Ammanford Waspi group co-ordinator said: "Around one million women aged 60-64 and over half a million women over 65 in the UK are in work. In fact we make up over 10 per cent of the workforce.

"It would be a win-win solution to help the current unemployment crisis. Older women whose jobs have become too strenuous could retire if they wished.

"Much-needed jobs would be available to younger people. Many of those who joined the workforce would leave the benefits system. Their spending power would increase and the economy would benefit.

“Women in their 60s are advised by the Government to minimise contact with other people because of Covid-19. But many over-60s women are working in public-facing roles such as social care, the NHS or retail. They are frightened to go to work but cannot afford not to because they have no other source of income. It is not just common sense, but also humane, to allow them to retire."

The group has written to MP Jonathan Edwards calling on him to raise the matter in Parliament and help the 3000 1950s women in Carmarthenshire.