A WASPI woman has demanded the Government pay her £48,000 amid fury at Rachel Reeves snubbing women demanding compensation for not being told of changes to the state pension age.
The Chancellor announced compensation packages worth more than £13billion for victims of the Post Office Horizon and infected blood scandals in her Budget on Wednesday (October 30).
But the more than three million women affected by the state pension rising from 60 in 2010 to 65 in 2015 didn’t get any mention despite Labour having pledged to help them.
Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), who argue that the pension age changes weren’t effectively communicated with them, staged protests on Budget day to highlight their plight and demand action from ministers.
Teresa Stoddart, 70, from Huyton, Merseyside, said she and her family have lost almost £50,000 because of the policy change.
Ms Stoddart, speaking at a protest in Liverpool, said: “We want what is ours by right. I lost out on £48,000. How am I ever going to make that money up? I paid in. National insurance contributions paid for our pensions. I will never, ever give up fighting because I feel it is a right.”
The nan-of-seven explained how she had been planning to get her pension in 2014 when she received a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions in 2012 to say she would would have to wait another six years.
She told the Liverpool Echo: “I wanted to retire at 60 to look after my grandchildren. My children, who all work in the public sector, couldn’t afford childcare.
“At great financial loss to me, I had to go into semi-retirement and look after my grandchildren.”
Ministers have to date failed to commit to compensating Teresa and the millions of women in similar positions despite a report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman recommending those affected be given £1,000 to £2,995.
In 1995, the Pensions Act included plans to raise the State Pension age for women to 65, in line with men’s. This was increased to 66 for both sexes under the 2007 Pensions Act.
WASPI supports the pension age being the same for men and women, but argues the way the change was brought in left “no time” for women to plan ahead.
Angela Madden, who chairs the campaign group, told The Telegraph: “Affected women have been vindicated by the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report.
“Parliament must compensate all affected women, yet months on we’re yet to receive an official response from the Labour Party.”
The Department for Work and Pensions has been approached for comment.
