The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign has received a devastating blow as Labour has confirmed it will ignore an official payout recommendation for millions of women impacted by a historic state pension injustice.
Pensions minister Liz Kendall MP announced the news in Parliament earlier this afternoon in a move that will see thousands of women receive miss out on up to £3,000 in compensation.
During ministerial questions, Kendall took aim at the ombudsman’s report and claimed the proposed payments were not “fair or value for taxpayer money'”. She claimed “the great majority of women knew the state pension age was increasing”.
Despite Labour’s refusal to offer a compensation package, similar to victims of the infected blood and Post Office Horizon scandals, Kendall insisted she is sympathetic to the minority who are struggling as a result of change to pension age.
While speaking to MPs, the pensions minister cited that in the majority of cases, sending letters earlier would not have made a difference in the retirement prospects of Women women. On top of this, she accused the Conservative Party of “kicking it down the road” when it came to issue and pledged to deal with it “head on”.
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Liz Kendall gave an update to the Waspi campaign as to whether state pension compensation is on its way earlier this afternoon
PA
For years, Waspi campaigners have lobbied the Government to address the inequity that has arose from state pension age equalisation between the sexes due to millions of women being left unable to sufficiently prepare for retirement. Under the 1995 State Pension Act, the state pension age for women from 60 to 65/
Some 3.8 million women are estimated to have been detrimentally impacted by the move due to the way the age hike was implemented. In 2021, a report by the Parliament and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) found the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guilty of “maladministration”.
This was due to inadequately informing women of the changes. Earlier this year, a follow-up reform from the ombudsman recommended a Level 4 payout to women born in the 1950s which comes to between £1,000 and £2,750.
Prior to this afternoon’s announcement, Waspi campaign chair Angela Madden warned the Government that “nothing less than fair and fast compensation” will be good enough for many women impacted.
Waspi campaigners have fought for compensation to address historic injustices PA She explained: “Waspi women have been watching and waiting for nine long months while the DWP response to the PHSO has been in gestation. Nothing less than the fair and fast compensation for which we’ve campaigned all these years will be seen as good enough by the 3.6 million affected WASPI women.
“Any scheme should see a universal payment for all those who the government failed to inform of State Pension Age changes, with additional provision for those who suffered the most acute, direct financial loss.
“This approach was unanimously endorsed by the cross-party Work and Pensions Committee earlier this year and we expect to see it honoured in the government’s approach today.”
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Waspi women have already been hit financially due to historic changes to the state pension GETTY