Why Labour's rejection of Waspi women's pension compensation claim is worse than it appears


Betrayal was the word on most people's minds – and lips – as Labour’s Liz Kendall dealt a potentially fatal blow to the compensation hopes of 1950s-born women affected by state pension changes.
It was an almost unprecedented refusal to accept the recommendations of an independent parliamentary ombudsman which seemed to shock even some on the government’s own benches. And a stunning rebuttal to those women who believed that Labour MPs, including Kendall, who had posed with signs supporting their cause would have their backs.
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Hide AdThousands of women in my own constituency of Edinburgh West are among those who had financial plans for retirement thrown into disarray by a failure to notify them properly of the changes to pension age. A mistake which Kendall not only admitted in the Commons but apologised for on behalf of the government.
Stunned Commons chamber
One of those Edinburgh West ‘Waspi’ women was amongst the first people to visit me when I was first elected more than seven years ago. She had not received the letter telling her she would have to wait a further seven years to retire until after she made life-changing financial decisions, thinking she had only two years to wait for her state pension.
The result was that the former office worker took another job as a cleaner, faced physical health problems as a result and financial difficulties. I thought about her as the Secretary of State’s words reverberated around a Commons chamber stunned at the brazenness.
After years of campaigning by the women, the independent ombudsman had delivered findings, before this summer's general election, recommending compensation for those women whose financial planning for retirement had been undermined by the mishandling of pension age changes.
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Hide AdBut the Labour administration, while admitting the maladministration, has ruled out any compensation at any time. Yet again the financial black hole which the new government claims the old one left behind was blamed.
Fair compensation
We all know the Tories left the economy in a shambles. Even they have begun to admit that they made mistakes. But asking wronged pensioners to pay the price of that mismanagement, when they have already paid the cost of changes to the original maladministration is simply wrong.
As a Liberal Democrat, I have called for the government to compensate Waspi women fairly, in line with the ombudsman’s recommendations. I’m not suggesting full restitution of all the money the women have lost, nor the winding back of state pension ages which would be neither sustainable nor equitable. Even so, it will cost billions. The government this week put the figure at between £4 and £10 billion.
My party has been clear that we would borrow the money over the next few years to cover the cost. This year alone, government borrowing was more than £100bn. At the autumn Budget, the Chancellor announced additional borrowing of nearly £20bn this year and an average of £32bn a year over the next five years.
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Hide AdA way must be found. Not just for the women, but to avoid setting a precedent: the rejection of an independent report by the parliamentary ombudsman. The impact on the women is bad enough, but there may be much more at stake for this government if it does not reconsider.
Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West
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