WASPI campaigners on the Fylde coast angry after Government says no to compensation
Women who lost money because of changes to the state pension age have been left angry and bitterly disappinted after ministers rejected their claim for compensation again.
They say they have been let down by the Labour government, which had supported them when it was in opposition to the previous Conservative regime.
Members of the national WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign claim that around 3.8 million women born in the 1950s were treated unfairly by the too-rapid changes to their pension age, which rose from 60 to 66 in line with men's.
They say that, because of the poor way in which these changes were communicated by the then Tory government, both the 1995 and 2011 changes came as a shock to many, with women discovering that they would have to wait up to six years longer for their state pension, potentially affecting their retirement plans.
Some of the women - who had planned in advance for their retirement only to be told they would now have to work for years until they received their pension - were affected by as much as £50,000.
But hopes of some kind of compensation have been dashed after the government decided last week that no compensation should be paid, having taken another look at the matter after a new document came to light.
On the Fylde coast, Holly Swales, a former Labour councillor who has supported local WASPI women in their campaign, said: “They can’t just decide the answer is “no” and leave it at that.
“The current government and the previous one have saved huge amounts of money by putting the pension age up.
“These women have been badly let down by this government and as a Labour supporter I’m embarrassed and ashamed by this.”
The government said the vast majority of 1950s-born women already knew the state pension age was increasing, thanks to a wide range of public information, including through leaflets, education campaigns, in GP surgeries, on TV and radio, in cinemas, and online.
But Ms Swales said: “How can they prove these women saw any of that or knew about it?”
WASPI campaigners and sisters Mary Waterhouse, 72, Susan Dutton, 69, and Norma Elkinton, 67, who all live on the Fylde coast, said the government had "let them down".