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WASPI campaigners are taking the next step in their fight over changes to the State Pension age. Chancellor Rachel Reeves made no mention of any compensation plans in her Budget on October 30 but did announce that Labour is setting aside £11.8 billion for victims of the infected blood scandal and £1.8 billion for the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Public inquiries into both scandals have recommended swift and generous compensation packages for those who have suffered injustices, but Ms Reeves claimed the previous Conservative government had failed to set aside any cash for this. Some 30,000 NHS patients were given blood products contaminated with HIV or hepatitis C between the 1970s and the early 1990s, leading to thousands of deaths as well as long-term impacts on the lives of those affected and their families.
In the Post Office Horizon scandal, thousands of innocent subpostmasters were wrongly accused of fraud due to faulty accounting software. In what has been described as one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history, some were jailed or forced to pay back thousands of pounds for what appeared to be financial shortfalls flagged up in the Horizon system.
However, no redress for WASPI women was included. Members of WASPI – Women Against State Pension Inequality – have already spoken of their “disappointment” at being ignored in Ms Reeves’ fiscal statement. Those impacted include more than 45,000 women in Birmingham.
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The organisation today said in a new update: “Another Budget has gone by without a plan to compensate WASPI women. Can you email your MP again, asking them to act on your behalf regarding this matter?
“You have probably written to your MP many times before, but the volume of WASPI mail in their mailbox keeps the issue alive in their minds.” It has provided a template letter to assist people in stating their case.
The long-running saga relates to 3.8 million women born between April 6, 1950, and April 5, 1960, who found their State Pension age had gone up from 60 to 65 and then to 66. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published its final report in March and says it found the DWP did not give the women enough notice of the age rise to 65 brought in by the 1995 Pensions Act but had provided adequate warning about the impact of the Pensions Act 2011, which further pushed up the age from 65 to 66. It says compensating all of those affected at its suggested level would involve spending between £3.5 billion and £10.5 billion.
Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds said in the most recent Government response on October 24: “I am the first Minister in eight years to meet WASPI campaigners to hear their experiences directly. The Ombudsman’s report took five years to complete and deserves serious consideration. This Government respects the work of the Ombudsman and we are currently working through all aspects of the Ombudsman’s final report along with the evidence provided during the investigation.”
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