North East Waspi women warn 'lessons not learned' after Budget compensation snub

'Waspi' women in the North East fear “lessons have not been learned” after they were excluded from Rachel Reeves’ Budget.

A delegation of 30 campaigners from the region journeyed to protest outside Westminster on Wednesday, where the Chancellor was accused of snubbing them as she announced compensation for victims of other injustices. A report published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) this March found that the Department for Work and Pensions failed to adequately communicate changes to women's state pension age and ruled that the affected women were owed compensation.

But while Ms Reeves announced more than £13 billion worth of compensation for victims of the infected blood and Post Office Horizon scandals in her first Budget, there was no mention of the millions of women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed about the increases to their state pension age. Christine Smith, coordinator of the Newcastle Wear and Tees Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) Group, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that she had been “extremely hopeful” Labour would deliver compensation once it came to power and that she could not understand what was behind the lack of action.

The 70-year-old said: “We were challenged by the Government to prove that maladministration had occurred and we did that, to a cost of half a million pounds. Maladministration has been proven and never in the history of Parliament has it gone against a PHSO (Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman) decision, otherwise there would be no point having a PHSO.

“We were hoping they would move more quickly, but all we are hearing now is that they want to give it ‘full consideration’. Well the PHSO considered it for six years and has come to a conclusion. I’m not sure what it is they have to look at.”

The former nurse, who lives in Kingston Park, in Newcastle, warned the Waspi campaign is “not going away” and called for an urgent decision from ministers as “time is not on our side”. It has been estimated at least 270,000 affected women have died during the Waspi campaign, which has called for compensation of at least £10,000 for each of the 3.6 million women it claims were wronged.

Christine, who spoke at the Waspi rally outside Parliament, added: “It [increasing women’s state pension age] has saved the government £181 billion. We are only asking for a fraction of that back and I don’t think we are being greedy. What we are asking for is a blanket £10,000 to each woman – plus further ability to claim if you can prove further financial loss, bearing in mind each woman has lost between £46,000 and £52,000, as well as emotional and physical impact.

“The anguish and depression of losing everything you work for causes problems. On top of that, our argument was that we did not receive adequate notice and Government said that it was terrible and WASPI women should have been given notice, they could have planned ahead. Yet then they have just given two months’ notice of withdrawal of the winter fuel payment. If you have nothing and are trying to scrape together £300 from nothing, you need more than two months. Lessons have not been learned.”

Emma Reynolds, Labour’s pensions minister, told Channel 5 News on Wednesday that her party was “not going to kick this decision off into the long grass” but would examine it “in some detail and give it proper consideration”. The minister declined to put a timeframe on a decision regarding compensation for Waspi women, but acknowledged 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. And I have said to them that I am looking very carefully at the reports that the ombudsman produced. It took him six years to come to his own conclusion about what had happened.”