WASPI fury as Rachel Reeves fails to decide to state pension scandal payouts

Hundreds of WASPI campaigners vented their fury outside Parliament as Rachel Reeves failed to announce compensation in her Budget.

Ministers are under pressure to deliver payouts to 3.6million women who were affected by the change in state pension ages. A landmark report in March recommended compensation of £1,000 to £2,995 to victims because of failures at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

This would cost taxpayers between £3.5billion and £10billion. But following the Chancellor’s silence in the Commons chamber, the head of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) group those affected “cannot continue to be patient”.

The scandal affects women born in the 1950s who weren’t properly informed that the state pension age went up. The group estimates that 25,000 WASPI women have died since the bombshell report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman earlier this year.

WASPI chairwoman Angela Madden said: “Millions of women’s retirement plans were thrown into chaos, many suffering extreme financial and mental hardships and this is why we are here today. 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.

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“With one affected woman dying every 13 minutes, we cannot continue to be patient. There are hundreds of MPs from across the House backing fair and fast compensation, now Ministers must deliver.”

In her Budget speech Ms Reeves announced £11.8billion had been set aside for victims of the infected blood scandal. And a further £1.8billion was committed for those affected by the Post Office Horizon scandal.

But there was nothing for women affected by the state pension change. Campaigners said affected women lost an average of £50,000 in state pension payments. Failures by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) meant millions of women born in the 1950s didn’t know the state pension age was rising from 60 to 65, and then to 66.

The WASPI group estimates that more than 110 affected women die every day. In July Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall pledged to work with the WASPI campaign, adding: “We are determined to deal with these problems and not run away from them.”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called on the Government to finally clear up what it intends to do. He said: “The Liberal Democrats have long supported fair and fast compensation for WASPI women, and we will continue to advocate for the millions of women across the country awaiting justice.

“In the absence of a commitment to compensation from the Chancellor today, ministers must urgently implement the findings of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report without further delay.”

And Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: “The previous government kicked the can down the road, and now the Labour Party must act. With the Chancellor failing to commit to compensate those affected today, and tens of thousands of pensioners struggling to make ends meet, ministers must urgently set out their plans to compensate those affected.”

Labour did not commit to payouts during the General Election campaign. Asked by The Mirror what Labour would do, Keir Starmer said: “What I’m not going to do is stand here and make promises that I don’t think we can afford. I’m going to look at the Ombudsman’s recommendations if we’re privileged to come into power. Someone should have looked at them, it should have been responded to, they’ve kicked it into the long grass.

“There’s a long list of challenges that we will pick up if we’re privileged to come into power and this is one of them.” Ministers had not laid out a response to the report before Parliament dissolved due to Rishi Sunak’s snap election announcement.