WASPI campaigners say it’s ‘crunch time’ as the Government weighs up what to do with a bombshell ombudsman report from March calling for compensation for 3.6million women
More than 130,000 WASPI women have died since a bombshell report saying they should be compensated, campaigners claim.
Frustrated activists have warned Keir Starmer not to “rehash and open” questions over whether women born in the 1950s should get payouts. The Tories stalled after a landmark report in March recommended 3.6million women get compensation of £1,000 to £2,995 each because of maladministration at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
This would cost between £3.5billion and £10billion. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found the DWP failed to properly warn women the state pension age was going up.
Thousands were plunged into poverty because they couldn’t plan for their future. On Friday No10 said the Government is “considering all of the findings of the report very carefully”.
A further update will follow “in due course”, a spokeswoman for the PM said. It comes after Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds this week told the Commons that the Government “respects” the Ombudsman’s work, but said it needs to “consider views that have been expressed on all sides”.
Angela Madden, who chairs the Women Against State Pension Inequality ( WASPI ) group said: “If ministers are now again ‘considering all views’ what is the point of an independent Ombudsman? The question of whether WASPI women should be compensated can’t just be rehashed and reopened after a six-year inquiry.
“It’s now a question of when and how compensation should be administered.” The group estimates that more than 110 affected women die every day.” Ms Madden said: “Too many women have already died waiting for politicians act. It’s now crunch time.”
On Tuesday Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said the Conservatives “shamefully ran away from the problem”. She pledged to work with the WASPI campaign, adding: “We are determined to deal with these problems and not run away from them.”
