The Labour Government has ruled out any compensation scheme for the so-called Waspi women hit by major changes to the state pension age.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced on Tuesday that her department did not accept the need for compensation – arguing that it would not be “fair and proportionate use of taxpayers’ money”.
Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaigners have been pushing for payments for all the 1950s-born women affected by the changes.
A damning report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) in March found that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was guilty of “maladministration” for failing to properly notify women of the changes.
Ms Kendall said the DWP did accept that there had been maladministration – but rejected the need to provide any money to Waspi women.
The cabinet minister said the Government had concluded that “there should be no scheme of financial compensation too 1950s-born in response to the ombudsman’s report.
An estimated 3.6 million Waspi women expected to get their state pension at 60 but had to wait another five or six years due to increases in the state pension age.
Good. It wasn’t injustice, it was fixing an injustice, and there was plenty of notice unless you had your head in the sand and paid no attention to your own retirement planning.
Basically it was a group who had paid the least into the system wanting the most out of it.
Women against equality.
Good. There was no justification for the disparity in retirement ages anyway and they had literally decades of notice. The whole thing is absurd.
So sad, I was quite literally going to write to Starmer to suggest another rise to NI to fund it. /s
How much notice were they given?
Hopefully this closes the door on this issue. They had plenty of time to check their entitlements and it’s online or they would have got a letter
I know this is about the supposed delay in telling them about the age rise, rather than the rise itself, but didn’t the judge at the original hearing say something like ‘you wanted equality, well here it is’.
Also, it’s quite funny that Labour are now having to make the tough decisions. I guarantee if they were still in opposition they would want the compensation payments.
Fantastic news!
Absolutely the right decision
Compare the decades that this has been publicly coming down the track to the notice that future students and their families got of £9k a year fees (and the corresponding silence ont he issue from press and politicians).
At least they’ve finally taken off those ridiculous and, frankly, insulting suffragette costumes.
Good. Whether or not they received personal communication, everyone knew the pension age was going up. If they didn’t check how it applied to them, that’s their own fault.
An actual rare win for the government and the UK taxpayer! No rational person actually supports this additional payout regards of what the media will spin it as. I’m glad the government didn’t cave to this, they had plenty of time complaining about this to have got their ducks in a row especially for a generation who had it much much easier than the current working generation who for some of us it’s likely the state pension won’t even exist when we reach age 66.
Good.
They benefitted from an inequality in the system. Where their husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, and male friends had to work longer to get the same pension entitlement as them, despite the women living longer. That’s inequality right there, however you cut it. It is right that the government took action to rectify it. Maybe they could have brought forward the men’s age to 60 years old, but they had reasons not to.
These women were then given 15 years notice to make these changes. They were told numerous times to get their affairs in order. Maybe government could have done more, but at some point you just have to say “we have told you numerous times that this will happen. It’s not our fault you have not paid attention.”
The only reason they have now to feel aggrieved is that Labour committed prior to the election to compensate them, and have now turned around and (rightly) said no.
“It’s not fair that we have to work until the same age as men” says a group of women who, on average, will live longer than those men.
I’m glad they got shut down. If they are healthy enough to work until 65 and don’t have a large enough private pension, then they should have to work.
16 comments
The Labour Government has ruled out any compensation scheme for the so-called Waspi women hit by major changes to the state pension age.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced on Tuesday that her department did not accept the need for compensation – arguing that it would not be “fair and proportionate use of taxpayers’ money”.
Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaigners have been pushing for payments for all the 1950s-born women affected by the changes.
A damning report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) in March found that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was guilty of “maladministration” for failing to properly notify women of the changes.
Ms Kendall said the DWP did accept that there had been maladministration – but rejected the need to provide any money to Waspi women.
The cabinet minister said the Government had concluded that “there should be no scheme of financial compensation too 1950s-born in response to the ombudsman’s report.
An estimated 3.6 million Waspi women expected to get their state pension at 60 but had to wait another five or six years due to increases in the state pension age.
Read more here: [https://inews.co.uk/news/waspi-women-no-compensation-dwp-3436509](https://inews.co.uk/news/waspi-women-no-compensation-dwp-3436509)
Good. It wasn’t injustice, it was fixing an injustice, and there was plenty of notice unless you had your head in the sand and paid no attention to your own retirement planning.
Basically it was a group who had paid the least into the system wanting the most out of it.
Women against equality.
Good. There was no justification for the disparity in retirement ages anyway and they had literally decades of notice. The whole thing is absurd.
So sad, I was quite literally going to write to Starmer to suggest another rise to NI to fund it. /s
How much notice were they given?
Hopefully this closes the door on this issue. They had plenty of time to check their entitlements and it’s online or they would have got a letter
I know this is about the supposed delay in telling them about the age rise, rather than the rise itself, but didn’t the judge at the original hearing say something like ‘you wanted equality, well here it is’.
Also, it’s quite funny that Labour are now having to make the tough decisions. I guarantee if they were still in opposition they would want the compensation payments.
Fantastic news!
Absolutely the right decision
Compare the decades that this has been publicly coming down the track to the notice that future students and their families got of £9k a year fees (and the corresponding silence ont he issue from press and politicians).
At least they’ve finally taken off those ridiculous and, frankly, insulting suffragette costumes.
Good. Whether or not they received personal communication, everyone knew the pension age was going up. If they didn’t check how it applied to them, that’s their own fault.
An actual rare win for the government and the UK taxpayer! No rational person actually supports this additional payout regards of what the media will spin it as. I’m glad the government didn’t cave to this, they had plenty of time complaining about this to have got their ducks in a row especially for a generation who had it much much easier than the current working generation who for some of us it’s likely the state pension won’t even exist when we reach age 66.
Good.
They benefitted from an inequality in the system. Where their husbands, brothers, fathers, sons, and male friends had to work longer to get the same pension entitlement as them, despite the women living longer. That’s inequality right there, however you cut it. It is right that the government took action to rectify it. Maybe they could have brought forward the men’s age to 60 years old, but they had reasons not to.
These women were then given 15 years notice to make these changes. They were told numerous times to get their affairs in order. Maybe government could have done more, but at some point you just have to say “we have told you numerous times that this will happen. It’s not our fault you have not paid attention.”
The only reason they have now to feel aggrieved is that Labour committed prior to the election to compensate them, and have now turned around and (rightly) said no.
“It’s not fair that we have to work until the same age as men” says a group of women who, on average, will live longer than those men.
I’m glad they got shut down. If they are healthy enough to work until 65 and don’t have a large enough private pension, then they should have to work.
Oh no! Not equality!
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