Renfrewshire women say they will not give up their fight for fair compensation for pension victims as they call on their local MPs not to abandon their cause.
The Renfrewshire branch of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) say their fight for compensation will not end despite the UK Government confirming recommended payments of up to £2,950 will not be made.
The women are among thousands born between April 1950 and April 1960 across the UK who were not properly notified of changes to the state pension age.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) had said last year that this amounted to maladministration on the part of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and, therefore, recommended remuneration.
It suggested the affected women, including the 11,000 in Renfrewshire, be paid between £1,000 and £2,950.
Branding the decision not to pay a “betrayal”, Renfrewshire women say they absolutely will not walk away from a near decade-long campaign against injustice.
Elaine Loch of the group said: “We are so disappointed in the Labour government. What they have done is a complete betrayal of the WASPI women. They have left us standing out in the cold but we want them to know we are still standing, we are not going away.
“What’s important to me and others is the principle of fairness. I want my weans and grandweans to know that their granny did her best; that she stood up for what’s right.”
One of the main points of injustice for the women is the fact an independent body designed to exercise checks and balances on the UK Government has been ignored.
It had identified maladministration on the part of the DWP and insisted on bringing the issue to the House of Commons when the DWP refused to accept its findings.
Kathleen Birney said: “Approximately 99 per cent of recommendations made by the PHSO are accepted by the government so why not this one? What does that say about the Labour party?
“What does that say about the checks and balances on the UK Government if the ombudsman is to be ignored?
“There has been talk of means testing for compensation but that is just not acceptable, we are all victims of maladministration and we are deserve to be compensated to the same level.
“We are just looking for what the ombudsman recommended. Some people are down £55,000 but we are happy to stand by the ombudsman’s findings.”
Going forward, the WASPI women would like to see the UK Government allow MPs to have a vote of conscience in the Commons.
This, the women hope, would encourage their own MPs to stand with them as they have done in the past.
Alison Taylor, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North and Johanna Baxter, MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, had both supported the WASPI women before the 2024 General Election and met with the local branch in the weeks before the government announcement.
Expressing huge disappointment that their MPs had not openly opposed the government decision, Elaine said: “Our new MPs have supported us until now.
“Maybe they have to toe the party line but we want these women to stand alongside us to fight for fairness and justice for older women.
“Johanna Baxter has a long history as a leading trade unionist with Unison and has fought injustice on many fronts, specifically around women’s rights and gender-based inequality. That shouldn’t change now.
“We recognise their commitment to the Labour party but we need MPs who are going to speak up for their constituents, the vast majority of whom support the WASPI women.”
Both Labour MPs have accepted their party’s stance that the vast majority of women did have sufficient notice of the changes to the state pension age and, therefore, blanket compensation to all was not appropriate or fair to the taxpayer – given the current pressure right now on the public purse.
Ms Baxter told the Paisley Daily Express she “takes seriously” the issues raised by all of her constituents including those of the WASPI women, stating she has discussed compensation frequently with ministers and spoke to the issue during a Westminster Hall debate.
She said: “It is because I care about their issues that I have directly raised the issue with the secretary of state for work and pensions in meetings in recent weeks; to look at avenues for fairly compensating WASPI women unaware and affected by the delay in notifying them of the change to their pension age.
“And I would welcome input from that campaign group on how we might achieve that in a way that is proportionate and reasonable for the taxpayer.
“The government accepted the ombudsman’s findings that previous administrations committed maladministration when it came to communicating the change in the state pension age.
“The secretary of state for work and pensions has rightly apologised to women affected on behalf the government and confirmed that ministers are determined to ensure that lessons are learnt from what went wrong.”
Ms Taylor said the state of the public finances means blanket compensation to WASPI women is simply not possible.
She said: “It was my hope that on coming to power the Labour government would have had the means to address the injustice faced by the WASPI women.
“The failure of the previous government to respond to the ombudsman report when it was issued in 2022 left it to the incoming government to respond.
“In doing so, they avoided taking responsibility and allowed the economic situation to deteriorate to a point where the current government was reluctantly unable to provide the blanket compensation recommended by the ombudsman.”
She added: “I take seriously the need to identify and support WASPI women who have genuinely been financially disadvantaged. I am more than happy to work with individual women or groups such as the Renfrewshire Branch of WASPI.”
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