WASPI campaigners issue deadline for Labour action on compensation | Personal Finance | Finance
The WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign has issued a deadline for Labour to act on the question of providing compensation.
Four months have passed since the landmark Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report came out, concluding the women should get payments of between £1,000 and £2,950.
Many MPs in the new Government have backed the cause, and the Liberal Democrats and the SNP have said there should be compensation payments.
But it’s up to the Labour administration to deal with the issue, with new pensions secretary Liz Kendall saying recently there needs to be “serious consideration” of the Ombudsman’s report.
She told the BBC: “We will continue to engage with the WASPI women and the campaigners, and that’s something that the Minister for Pensions will be working on. We are determined to deal with these problems and not run away from them.”
WASPI chair Angela Madden was unimpressed with her comments. She 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.
“As the new Secretary of State says, this scandal has been going on for years, so the idea it is all a new issue for them to take a view about is really for the birds. They have had the Ombudsman’s very clear report for four months even before they took office.”
The campaign boss pointed to the progress made in the previous Parliament after the report came out and issued a deadline for Labour to take action.
She explained: “Stephen Timms, then as Chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, rightly said compensation proposals should be brought before Parliament before the summer.
“Then Sunak pulled the plug and held an election, which has delayed things still further.
“But by his own logic, there must surely now be a resolution on the table by September if he was expecting Tory ministers to come up with their response by the end of this month.
“Too many women have already died waiting for politicians to act. It’s now crunch time.”
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