Many have been left in financial hardship, sparking a long legal and political battle for compensation – which has now seemingly been put to bed by the Labour Party
The Government has issued a scathing non-apology – and you probably missed it. While the world was busy playing a game of “will he resign or not?,” over Keir Starmer’s future, a statement was released without notice or much fanfare that nips one of the biggest ongoing issues in the bud.
For the unaware, the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) saga involves millions of UK women born in the 1950s who argue that the government failed to give enough notice when raising their pension age from 60 to 66.
This left many in financial hardship, sparking a long legal and political battle for compensation – which has now seemingly been put to bed.
A petition launched on the Government’s own website saw more than 60k people sign it, and it asked for the Labour to “deliver a fair, timely, fully transparent apology that reflects ALL evidence based on what we think constitutes maladministration and discrimination; and addresses the financial, emotional and personal hardship experienced by 1950s women caused by pension changes”.
However, rather than offering said apology, a statement was released last night doing the exact opposite – which some would called doubling-down.
After an Ombudsman found maladministration because the government delayed sending personalised pension letters for 28 months, they state that while the Secretary of State apologised for this specific communication failure, the government maintains that the underlying decision to raise the pension age was legal.
It states: “The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) investigated the way State Pension age changes were communicated to women born in the 1950s and whether within a specific time period there was maladministration and injustice and if so, whether it warrants compensation.
“They did not examine the ‘financial, emotional and personal hardship experienced by 1950s women caused by pension changes’ that the petition focuses on and which relate to the decision, first taken by Parliament in 1995, to equalise the State Pension age for men and women nor that to accelerate the increases in 2011 taken by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition.”
They also added: “The Government are now ensuring that more pensioners get that extra income with the biggest ever campaign to increase take-up of Pension Credit, which saw tens of thousands more Pension Credit awards in the year up to November than the previous 12 months.”
To sum up – they didn’t apologise and are seemingly brushing it off.
The petition is still, however, open, and will see a Parliamentary debate if 100,000 signatories are reached.
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