WASPI women in North East warn 'lessons not learned' after Budget compensation snub

And one of the leading WASPI women – or Women Against State Pension Inequality – from the North East who were in London on Budget day last week fears that “lessons have not been learned” after they were excluded from Rachel Reeves’ statement.

A report published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman this March found that the Department for Work and Pensions failed to adequately communicate changes to women’s state pension age and ruled that the affected women were owed compensation.

But while Ms Reeves announced more than £13billion worth of compensation for victims of the infected blood and Post Office Horizon scandals in her first Budget, there was no mention of the millions of women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed about the increases to their state pension age.

Berwick North county councillor Catherine Seymour said: “On Budget day, I attended and supported the Berwick-upon-Tweed group and Northumberland WASPI pensioners outside Westminster, along with campaigners from all over the country. They have been fighting for many years for the long-awaited state pension compensation.

“It was disappointing that there was nothing in the budget for them and the government is not listening to our pensioners, who are the backbone of our country.”

Christine Smith, coordinator of the Newcastle Wear and Tees Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) Group, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that she had been “extremely hopeful” that Labour would deliver compensation once it came to power and that she could not understand what was behind the lack of action.

The 70-year-old added: “It [increasing women’s state pension age] has saved the government £181billion. We are only asking for a fraction of that back and I don’t think we are being greedy.

“What we are asking for is a blanket £10,000 to each woman – plus further ability to claim if you can prove further financial loss, bearing in mind each woman has lost between £46,000 and £52,000, as well as emotional and physical impact.

“The anguish and depression of losing everything you work for causes problems. On top of that, our argument was that we did not receive adequate notice and Government said that it was terrible and WASPI women should have been given notice, they could have planned ahead.

“Yet then they have just given two months’ notice of withdrawal of the winter fuel payment. If you have nothing and are trying to scrape together £300 from nothing, you need more than two months. Lessons have not been learned.”

Emma Reynolds, Labour’s pensions minister, told Channel 5 News that her party was “not going to kick this decision off into the long grass” but would examine it “in some detail and give it proper consideration”.

The minister declined to put a timeframe on a decision regarding compensation for WASPI women, but acknowledged campaigners “have been waiting a number of years”.