It’s incomprehensible that a government so recently hammered for cutting Winter Fuel Allowance would reject the Ombudsman’s call for compensation, argues Susan Press.

In  March this year the Ombudsman, after a six-year-long inquiry, announced that every WASPI woman should receive between £1,000 and £2,950 in compensation. It wasn’t much – but it was something after nine long years of campaigning and lobbying.

WASPI – Women Against State Pension Inequality – was founded in 2015 to advocate for the 3.6 million women born in the 1950s who were affected by state pension changes bringing women into line with men and adding five years or more to their wait for a state pension.

After nearly ten years of knockbacks from successive Prime Ministers, few believed Rishi Sunak would accept the Ombudsman’s verdict and offer any of the money suggested. But then he called a General Election and Labour won a landslide. Hopes were raised exponentially.

After all, most Labour MPs had at some point since 2015 pledged support for the WASPI women.  There had been endless selfies with campaigners at Party Conference, photo ops for leaflets and websites, Tweets and Facebook posts and successful rallies in the House of Commons.  New Chancellor  Rachel Reeves  had even had a photo taken with her WASPI-age Mum and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall was also a keen advocate for the cause.

Her much touted ‘imminent’  announcement about the WASPIs arrived just in time for Christmas . It was an unexpected and horrible twist to the tale.

Nada. Zilch. Nothing at all.

Just a bleak statement to the Chamber announcing that the Minister would not be providing compensation to a single one of the women affected by the state pension age changes, which came into effect decades into their working lives when financial options were already running out.

Though accepting the Ombudsman’s findings, and apologising for the mistakes made in letting women know about the changes, there would be no financial redress. There was evidence, she said, that there was “considerable awareness” of the changes to the pension age, and sending letters earlier would not have made a difference to the women’s ability to make retirement choices.

She also said that there was no evidence of “direct financial loss” resulting from the government’s decision, and that Labour did not believe that paying a flat rate to all women at a cost of up to £10.5bn would be fair or proportionate to taxpayers. 

“I know that many 1950s-born women will be disappointed about this specific decision, but we believe it is the right decision and the fair decision,” said Kendall.

The news came as a profound shock to most of us WASPIs – because quite honestly no-one was expecting the full £58 billion belatedly promised in the 2019 Labour manifesto which would have meant payouts  of up to £31,000. Nor by this stage did we expect the £10,000 compensation which was WASPI’s original ask.  But surely, I thought,  no government and certainly not a Labour one, would refuse  us the flat £1,000 recommended, which would at least have been a token badge of solidarity. It seemed frankly incomprehensible that a government so recently hammered by the electorate for cutting Winter Fuel Allowance would make anything like the same mistake again. And yet… this is exactly what happened.

WASPI  Chair Angela Madden said the decision to ignore the clear recommendations of an independent watchdog which urged Ministers to compensate WASPI women nine months ago was  “unprecedented” and a “bizarre and totally unjustified move.” She was of course correct. However, to many of us in the Labour Party, it was  much worse than that.

The  government’s  sheer lack of political nous, inability to learn the lessons of recent policy disasters and follow the most basic political rules of not breaking promises and sticking to core principles have left members angry and bewildered.

In the last couple of days, leaked WhatsApp messages show MPs are equally furious – and not just the usual suspects either.  Barrow MP Michelle Scrogham, elected only in July, says: “You have to wonder how did we get here? I was elected under a banner of integrity . I stood shoulder to shoulder with these women and promised to fight for them as did many of us. My integrity is worth more than this.”

As dozens of Labour MPs take to social media to explain why they still support the WASPI women, the organisation has vowed to carry on campaigning.  There are calls for a Parliamentary vote on the issue and possibly more legal action, but at this stage it’s hard to see how any of this will result in anything other than more disappointment for the WASPI women.

A template letter with ‘lines to take’ has already been issued by the powers that be and no doubt that is how the majority of MPs will respond to the inevitable backlash of emails and phone calls. But with so much goodwill already squandered since July, I guess very few angry constituents will appreciate the mantra of ‘tough choices’ and ‘black holes’ when for so long they were led to believe that some kind of compensation was actually on the cards. 

And, as previous administrations have eventually found out at great cost, voters do not appreciate politicians not being straight with them. The WASPI betrayal – because that’s what it is  – is unlikely to be forgotten or forgiven by much of the electorate. Particularly women of a certain age.

Susan Press is a former Labour councillor and member of Calder Valley CLP. She was born in October 1957, so is also a WASPI!

Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plaidcymru/47470519271 55458216_10161316131275618_7817541980023422976_o | Plaid Cymru – The Party of Wales | Flickr Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed