Women affected by major changes to the state pension age are demanding that the next prime minister sets out a compensation plan within 100 days of entering No 10.
Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaigners are putting pressure on all the political parties to commit to a payment scheme in their general election manifestos.
“The solution needs to be started within the first 100 days of the new government,” Angela Madden, chair of the Waspi campaign, told i. “We will be making that clear to all the parties. We will be making a fuss.”
There are an estimated 3.6 million so-called Waspi women who had expected to start receiving their pension at 60, but had to wait another five or six years due to increases in their state pension age to equalise it with men’s.
There is growing frustration that neither the Conservatives nor Labour have committed to compensation after a damning report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) recommended payments of between £1,000 and £2,950.
Ms Madden said local Waspi groups across Britain were “mobilising”, arranging meetings with all the candidates in their area, as well as planning to push the case for compensation at hustings events.
“Waspi women will get into a quid pro quo conversation with all candidates, asking ‘If I give you my vote, what are you going to do for us?’”
The Liberal Democrats, the SNP and the Greens have come out strongly in favour of a compensation scheme, after the PHSO found the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guilty of “maladministration” over the failure to properly notify Waspi women of the pension age change.
However, the Conservative Government did not offer any response to March’s PHSO report in the months before Rishi Sunak called a general election, leaving the Waspi campaign bitterly disappointed.
There is also deep frustration that Labour has refused to commit to compensation.
“They have listened to us,” said Ms Madden of Sir Keir Starmer’s party. “But now it’s time to actually put that into some sort of action in a manifesto commitment, committing within the first 100 days to start to resolve this social injustice.”
Asked if Labour could lose votes to other parties on the Waspi issue, Ms Madden said: “I think they could. People are looking at the parties afresh. They [Labour] might feel complacent, but I don’t think they should.”
The Conservatives have promised to increase the tax-free allowance for pensioners in line with the existing “triple lock”, to ensure it rises each year – a policy Mr Sunak has dubbed the “triple lock plus”.
Under this policy, both the state pension and retirees’ tax-free allowance would increase in line with whichever is the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent.
But calculations show that retirees, for whom the full new state pension is their sole income, could end up saving just £14.60 per year in tax payments by 2028 under the policy.
“It is a bit of sop to older people,” said Ms Madden. “I suspect it is a cheap way to get the older vote. They would do better to resolve the big injustice created by the DWP. The Conservatives still have an opportunity [to offer compensation].”
Shelagh Simmons, the 70-year-old organiser of the Solent Waspi group, which covers the area in and around Portsmouth and Southampton, also dismissed the Conservative’s pension offer.
“I don’t think the Waspi women will be overly impressed – people will see it as a cynical election ploy,” she told i. “It is paltry sums. There is a bigger injustice that is being ignored.”
Rosie Dickson, 66, a campaigner with the Glasgow, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Lanarkshire Waspi group, said the triple lock plus was “too little too late”.
Ms Dickson is helping organise a hustings event for former Unite union members in Glasgow North on 18 June – a seat Labour is hoping to take from the SNP – in which candidates will answer questions on the Waspi compensation issue and the triple lock plus.
“We want all parties to commit [to compensation],” she said. “We’re certainly waiting with bated breath to see what’s in the Labour manifesto. They could lose votes to other opposition parties on the compensation issue. There are votes to be won or lost on this.”
Ms Simmons is pushing for meetings with all the candidates in 14 seats in the Solent area on the south coast. The Tory-held seats of Eastleigh and Winchester are vulnerable to changing hands to the Lib Dems.
“The Government kept delaying and prevaricating. But they [the Conservatives] do now have an opportunity to put that right.”
Ms Simmons added: “Labour seems to have gone very quiet, which is a bit disconcerting. We’re urgently waiting to see what they will do. We need that commitment.”
Frances Neil, co-ordinator of the South East Essex Waspi group, is hoping to talk to candidates in Rochford and Southend East, and Southend West and Leigh. Both seats are expected to be straight fights between Labour and the Tories.
“If the main parties [the Conservatives and Labour] don’t mention it in their manifestos, it may well influence where some women cast their votes,” said the 70-year-old.
“It’s major issue for a lot of people. There are 3.6 million of us. We will be knocking on the door of the next government and next prime minister, whichever party wins. We won’t stop. We won’t go away.”
Previous research shows there are 166 constituencies in the UK where the number of local Waspi women exceeds the majority held by the current MP.
i has contacted Labour and the Conservatives for comment. The DWP has said it was considering the ombudsman’s report and would respond in due course.
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