Waspi women criticize Budget for omitting compensation

Campaigners from Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) have criticized the government after their exclusion from a compensation commitment announced in the Budget. Waspi women from the north east of England accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of overlooking them as she revealed support for victims of other injustices. Christine Smith, coordinator of the Newcastle, Wear and Tees Waspi group, stated that they had been “extremely hopeful” Labour would finally provide compensation to women affected by changes to the state pension age. Pensions minister Emma Reynolds told Channel 5 News that her party was “not going to kick this decision off into the long grass”. The Waspi campaign advocates for individuals impacted by government decisions to increase the pension age from 60 to 65 in 1995, and subsequently to 66 in 2012. This alteration has left many women without the retirement income they had originally anticipated. A group, including Ms Smith, gathered in Westminster to protest during Wednesday’s Budget. A report issued by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in March determined that the Department for Work and Pensions had failed to adequately communicate changes to women’s state pension age. Following a six-year investigation into the matter, it concluded that the affected women were owed compensation. In her inaugural Budget, Reeves announced over £13bn in compensation for victims of the infected blood and Post Office Horizon scandals, but there was no mention of the women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed about increases to their state pension age. Ms Smith, a former nurse, informed the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the Waspi campaign was “not going away” and called for an urgent decision from ministers, emphasizing that “time is not on our side”. The 70-year-old described how the ordeal had caused “anguish and depression” as the women lost “everything” they worked for. Speaking to Channel 5 News, Reynolds declined to provide a timeframe for a decision regarding compensation for Waspi women, but acknowledged that campaigners “have been waiting a number of years”. She added: “I met the Waspi campaigners, I was the first minister actually to meet them in eight years, earlier in the autumn. “I have said to them that I am looking very carefully at the reports that the ombudsman produced.” She further stated that the government would examine it “in some detail and give it proper consideration”.