Waspi group: Safeguard will \u2018prevent risk of financial ruin\u2019 in compensation bid<\/a><\/p>\nHe said any move to compensate the Waspi women would not be “practical.”<\/p>\n
Mr McFadden told MPs: \u201cThe changes from 2011 underline the importance that decisions on the state pension age carry and the impact they have on people\u2019s lives. I take seriously the need to weigh carefully any future changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is why \u2013 with the ombudsman \u2013 the department has been developing an action plan for the future.\u201cWork on that stopped pending today\u2019s new decision, and I can confirm that it will now resume.\u201d<\/p>\n
He concluded: \u201cI believe it was right to review the evidence and that, having done so, we\u2019ve made the right decision, based on due process and the body of evidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd at the same time, looking to the future, we are taking important steps to support women in retirement and help them to build a better life for themselves and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) has long-campaigned for compensation, with chairwoman Angela Madden accusing the Government of \u201cutter contempt\u201d.<\/p>\n
She told LBC News: “We believe it’s a disgraceful political choice by ministers. <\/p>\n
“They’re a very small group of very powerful people who have decided that the harm and injustice we’ve suffered doesn’t matter.”<\/p>\n
A report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has previously suggested compensation ranging between \u00a31,000 and \u00a32,950 could be appropriate for each of those affected by how state pension changes had been communicated.<\/p>\n
The Government\u2019s decision to deny Waspi women compensation is \u201cfrankly wrong\u201d, the chairwoman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on State Pension Inequality for Women has said.<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s Rebecca Long Bailey said: \u201cIt is frankly wrong that the Government has once again chosen to reject compensation for the 1950s women affected by state pension age changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman stated maladministration and injustice had occurred and they recommended compensation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe advice to Government was clear and blatantly ignoring those recommendations not only undermines the authority of the Ombudsman, it sends a damaging message about how the state responds when it gets things wrong. Put simply, it will not right historical wrongs even when its own independent advisors tell it to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Salford MP added: \u201cI have spoken to women who lost their homes, who were forced to work on despite serious ill health, and who suffered deep anxiety because they were denied the chance to plan for retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are not abstract harms. They are the direct consequences of the state getting it wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the Government is serious about accountability and fairness, it must listen to the women who have lived with the consequences of this failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cJustice delayed has already caused immense harm. Justice denied will only compound it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lib Dems slammed the decision, saying Labour have put the Waspi women in “too hard to do file” <\/p>\n
Steve Darling, the Lib Dem\u2019s work and pensions spokesman, told the Commons: \u201cThere are more than 3.6 million Waspi women across the UK who will feel this as if it were a punch in the stomach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will feel utterly betrayed, and they will feel betrayed because false hope was given to them in the autumn, and so that hope has been dashed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pat McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary, responded that the Lib Dems were part of the coalition government that led the decision to pension age change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour\u2019s previous policy not to offer redress was reviewed following the rediscovery of a 2007 Department for Work…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-273640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}