Ceri Jayes, of Lower Warren Road, Kingsbridge, writes:

The four co-signatories of the letter ‘Female Pension ­apprehension’, Gazette, July 10, share Gary Edgecombe’s experience – ‘Inaction driving me to distraction’, Gazette, September 11 – of being less than satisfied with the response from our local MP, Dr Sarah Wollaston, to an important issue.

The four of us were born in the mid-1950s. We had four years’ notice that we would receive the state pension at the age of 66 and not 60. How can anyone replace six years’

lost pension, approximately £40,000, with only four years notice?

I put this question to Dr Wollaston and received the response that it must be infuriating to be on the wrong side of any cut-off line. I wrote again, asking for a reply to my question. The issue was sidestepped and I was sent a mass of charts about life expectancy.

The next generation will have at least 10 years’ notice of any change to their state pension, so they can plan for their future. This rationale could have been applied to women born in the 1950s, but it wasn’t. We are trapped. We worked at a time when equality was in its infancy and we did not have the opportunities that women now have to build up a good occupational pension and we are therefore more reliant on the state pension and had ­factored it in to our financial plans. I feel ashamed and angry that, having been independent for 40 years, I am now unable to support myself.

How are other women caught in this trap managing to cope financially? There are few jobs available in the South Hams for us and many employers are reluctant to take on older employees who may have had a career gap. To make matters worse, many women are ­saddled with the double burden of trying to make financial ends meet and striving to care for elderly ­relatives since the post-election U-turn by the Conservative Party over imposing a £72,000 cap on care costs in old age.

Please sign the email petition ‘Reverse the State Pension Law’. When there are 100,000 signatures the issue could be raised in the House of Commons by an MP who has some empathy with their ­constituents.