'I lost out on £48,000... I will never, ever give up fighting for it'

While the finishing touches were put to the Budget, there was anger on the street. Like millions of 1950s-born women, Teresa Stoddart says she has lost out on something that was 'a right'.

She is one of the women who had her retirement plans thrown into disarray due to an increase in state pension age. An estimated 3.6 million women expected to get their state pension at 60 but had to wait another five or six years, following changes announced in 1995 and 2012.

Many say they were not properly warned, the Liverpool Echo reports. For more than a decade, the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaigners have fought for change.

READ MORE: Horrific video shows moment boy, 14, is mauled by vicious dog in Bolton park as police hunt owners

Teresa Stoddart can barely disguise her fury when she describes what she and other women of her generation have been through these past few years. The nan-of-seven, 70, said: "I was due to get my pension in 2014 and I made plans for that.

"Then I got a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions in 2012 to say that I wasn't going to get my state pension in 2014 because they were changing the age. Mine was now 2020. So that was six years I had to wait. I'd already made arrangements at that time.

"I wanted to retire at 60 to look after my grandchildren. My children, who all work in the public sector, couldn't afford childcare. At great financial loss to me, I had to go into semi-retirement and look after my grandchildren. I practically did a job share with my daughter. She'd work one half of the week and I'd do the other. But that takes its toll."

Teresa spoke out at a protest in Liverpool city centre this morning (October 30), held on the same day Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her first Budget. Despite being employed by DWP for decades, Teresa was taken by surprise when she received a letter from the government telling her that her pension age was set to change.

"I was absolutely devastated when I got the letter," said Teresa, from Huyton, Merseyside. "In 2013, I had to go semi-retired and take a drop in my finances in order to assist my children and my grandchildren. I've looked after grandchildren and also looked after elderly relatives. We're a sandwich generation. We've looked after the elderly, we're looking after the younger people too."

Teresa claims she and her family have lost out on nearly £50,000 as a result of the policy change. "We want what is ours by right. I lost out on £48,000. How am I ever going to make that money up? I paid in. National insurance contributions paid for our pensions. I will never, ever give up fighting because I feel it is a right."

A pivotal report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman was issued in March which stated that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was guilty of "maladministration" having failed to properly notify women of pension changes. The watchdog recommended compensation and suggested payments of between £1,000 and £2,950, which would could put the bill at up to £10.5bn. However, in today's Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves did not commit any money to the compensation scheme for WASPI women.