There will be no payout for WASPI women as Labour has rejected the Ombudsman’s ruling that they should be compensated for failures to tell them of changes in the state pension age.
Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) had called for payouts of £10,000 each after saying an estimated 3.6 million women were not properly informed of the rise in state pension age to bring them into line with men.
And in March a parliamentary ombudsman recommended payouts of between £1,000 and £2,950 to those affected.
But now the Labour government’s axe-woman – Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall – has said there will be no compensation at all.
She apologised for government delays in informing those affected but refused to accept any UK government responsibility for financial hardship that women had suffered as a result.
You can bet that this won’t be the end of it.
WASPI is not arguing that the pension age should not have been raised, stating that this was done by democratic government decision – but that the way the Department for Work and Pensions provided information about it meant that women were unable to make appropriate choices that they would have made if they had known earlier that their State Pension age would increase, and that this has had emotional and financial impacts on their lives.
The group is arguing for fair, fast and straightforward compensation for the emotional and financial losses – both direct losses and lost opportunities – that women have suffered.
The ombudsman’s reports have shown that there was maladministration, that it caused injustice, and that the WASPI women deserve compensation.
I wrote back in March that “we now have a clear ruling – from the authority with power to make such decisions – that thousands of women who were born in the 1950s have been mistreated with regard to their pensions and should be compensated.
“The offending government department should not have discretion to reject that ruling but should simply shut up and pay up.”
I also pointed out that the then-Tory government was likely to be out of power by the end of the year, and hoped that the Waspi women would have the good sense “to shun Labour as well and choose an Independent or Green candidate who will support them”.
Sadly, that didn’t happen and we ended up with a Labour government whose ministers seem to think they can do what they want.
The big question now is, what happens next? Will this case end up in court? How long will that take? Is Labour just trying to delay accepting liability until everybody affected is dead, as usual?
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No payout for Waspi women as Labour has rejected the Ombudsman’s ruling
There will be no payout for WASPI women as Labour has rejected the Ombudsman’s ruling that they should be compensated for failures to tell them of changes in the state pension age.
Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) had called for payouts of £10,000 each after saying an estimated 3.6 million women were not properly informed of the rise in state pension age to bring them into line with men.
And in March a parliamentary ombudsman recommended payouts of between £1,000 and £2,950 to those affected.
But now the Labour government’s axe-woman – Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall – has said there will be no compensation at all.
She apologised for government delays in informing those affected but refused to accept any UK government responsibility for financial hardship that women had suffered as a result.
You can bet that this won’t be the end of it.
WASPI is not arguing that the pension age should not have been raised, stating that this was done by democratic government decision – but that the way the Department for Work and Pensions provided information about it meant that women were unable to make appropriate choices that they would have made if they had known earlier that their State Pension age would increase, and that this has had emotional and financial impacts on their lives.
The group is arguing for fair, fast and straightforward compensation for the emotional and financial losses – both direct losses and lost opportunities – that women have suffered.
The ombudsman’s reports have shown that there was maladministration, that it caused injustice, and that the WASPI women deserve compensation.
I wrote back in March that “we now have a clear ruling – from the authority with power to make such decisions – that thousands of women who were born in the 1950s have been mistreated with regard to their pensions and should be compensated.
“The offending government department should not have discretion to reject that ruling but should simply shut up and pay up.”
I also pointed out that the then-Tory government was likely to be out of power by the end of the year, and hoped that the Waspi women would have the good sense “to shun Labour as well and choose an Independent or Green candidate who will support them”.
Sadly, that didn’t happen and we ended up with a Labour government whose ministers seem to think they can do what they want.
The big question now is, what happens next? Will this case end up in court? How long will that take? Is Labour just trying to delay accepting liability until everybody affected is dead, as usual?
Like this:
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