Waspi women criticise Budget compensation snub

Waspi women from the North East took their protest to Westminster on Wednesday

Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaigners have criticised the government after being excluded from a compensation pledge in the Budget.

Waspi women from the north east of England accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of snubbing them as she announced help for victims of other injustices

Christine Smith, coordinator of the Newcastle, Wear and Tees Waspi group, said they had been "extremely hopeful" Labour would finally deliver compensation to women impacted by changes to the state pension age.

Pensions minister Emma Reynolds told Channel 5 News her party was "not going to kick this decision off into the long grass".

Waspi women campaign for those affected by government decisions to raise the pension age from 60 to 65 in 1995, then to 66 in 2012.

The change has left many women without the retirement income they originally anticipated.

A group, including Ms Smith, gathered in Westminster during Wednesday's Budget to protest.

'Anguish and depression'

A report published by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in March found the Department for Work and Pensions had failed to adequately communicate changes to women's state pension age.

Having investigated the issue for six years, it ruled that the affected women were owed compensation.

In her first Budget, Reeves announced more than £13bn of compensation for victims of the infected blood and Post Office Horizon scandals, but there was no mention of the women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed about increases to their state pension age.

Ms Smith, a former nurse, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the Waspi campaign was "not going away" and called for an urgent decision from ministers as "time is not on our side".

The 70-year-old said the ordeal had caused "anguish and depression" as the women lost "everything" they worked for.

Speaking to Channel 5 News, Reynolds declined to put a timeframe on a decision regarding compensation for Waspi women, but acknowledged campaigners "have been waiting a number of years".

She added: "I met the Waspi campaigners, I was the first minister actually to meet them in eight years, earlier in the autumn.

"I have said to them that I am looking very carefully at the reports that the ombudsman produced."

She added the government would examine it "in some detail and give it proper consideration".