The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign received a devastating blow yesterday as Labour confirmed it will ignore an official payout recommendation for millions of women impacted by a historic state pension injustice.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall MP announced the news in Parliament earlier this afternoon in a move that will see thousands of women 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.
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”.
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.
Liz Kendall is under fire for her previous support for the Waspi campaign PA / WASPI / LIZ KENDALL Under the 1995 State Pension Act, the state pension age for women rose 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.
With that in mind do you agree with the government’s decision not to compensate Waspi women? Have your say in the poll above.
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