Oral Answers to Questions

Brian Leishman Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

I am grateful to the right hon. and learned Lady for her question, and I agree that more youth apprenticeship starts are desirable. She may not know this, but we are introducing a hiring incentive of £2,000 for a small business that takes on a young apprentice, and if that young person has been out of work and on universal credit for six months or more, that incentive goes up to £5,000. We are helping small businesses to do exactly what she has called for.

[Brian Leishman (Alloa and Grangemouth) (Lab)]

2. What steps he is taking to help support women born in the 1950s who have been affected by state pension changes.

[The Minister for Pensions (Torsten Bell)]

We want all pensioners, including women born in the 1950s, to have the comfortable retirements they deserve. That is why we are delivering on our twin priorities for pensioners: raising the state pension, and rescuing the NHS. We are also delivering the largest ever pension credit take-up campaign, which is particularly important for low-income pensioners, a disproportionate number of whom are women.

[Brian Leishman]

More than 3.5 million WASPI women were affected by the change to the state pension age. Time is of the essence, because another WASPI woman dies every 13 minutes on average, without receiving fairness or justice. The Prime Minister personally assured the WASPI campaigners during the Makerfield by-election that he would meet them to discuss potential routes to redress. Can the Minister confirm what actions the Department is taking to support the Prime Minister in those discussions? Crucially, when will the meeting happen?

[Torsten Bell]

The Prime Minister and I opposed the 2011 acceleration of the state pension age by the coalition Government of the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, in particular because it gave some women as little as five years’ notice of changes to their state pension age. Those same women have faced disadvantage in the workplace and very uneven burdens of caring responsibilities. I have recently written to WASPI representatives to set out the Government’s position. With legal proceedings ongoing, further comment is not appropriate, but I continue to hear from and to speak to women affected by the accelerated increases in the state pension age.