More than 300,000 WASPI women have died since the fight for compensation launched, campaigners said today.
Keir Starmer has been urged to finally settle the “desperately unfair situation” after the grim milestone was announced. Angela Madden, who heads the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign, told The Mirror that around 25,000 have died since Labour came to power.
Her own sister Mel passed away aged 71 earlier this year without seeing justice. She said: “There’s another 299,999 women who have lost people as well, families have lost sisters, mothers, grandmothers.
“And it really brings to light that we’re not all living longer all the time.” Mrs Madden said Mel, who was less than a year older than her, was “actively involved” in the WASPI campaign and wanted to see the injustice put right.
In a message to the PM, Mrs Madden said: “I think around 25,000 women have died since they came into office. Every day that means another 100 souls lost before they see justice.
“We are a historic injustice that needs to be resolved.” Mrs Madden, 70, retired when she was nearly 55 so she could help care for her seriously ill mother.
She believed she could start drawing her pension when she turned 60, unaware that it had gone up to 66. The campaign for compensation was launched in 2015.
In March a bombshell watchdog report said more than three million women born in the 1950s should receive payouts of up to £2,995 and an apology due to the shambolic handling of the pension age rise.
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Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publis)
Thousands were thrown into poverty because they weren’t informed about the change and could not plan for their future.
Campaigners say the average victim missed out on over £50,000 in pension payments. In a scathing report watchdog the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman called on Parliament to urgently pay out between £1,000 and £2,950 per victim.
But in the eight month since the report, the Government has yet to set out a timetable to respond. On Wednesday Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall told MPs she was working as “quickly as humanly possible”.
But no money was set aside in the Budget and ministers have yet to say what they will do about the compensation call. Josie Irwin, head of equality at trade union UNISON – which is supporting the WASPI campaign – said: “An entire generation of women has been affected by this pensions shambles, leaving their retirement plans in tatters.
“It’s a tragedy so many women have died without receiving the payments they were due.” She continued: “Ministers should respond to the Ombudsman’s report and find a way to resolve this desperately unfair situation.”
Between April 2010 and November 2018 the State Pension age for women gradually increased from 60 to 65. It went up again to 66 in October 2020, and is due to go up to 67 by 2028.