State Pension  

Waspi takes fight back to Westminster

 

Waspi - the Women Against State Pensions Inequality campaign - has vowed to continue putting pressure on Westminster despite statements from the pensions minister that there would be no money for women affected by the changes to state pension age.

Pat Tarttelin, spokeswoman for the Waspi Campaign, said: "I do not know what the government will be doing but we do want them to come to the table.

"There will be a demonstration on 8 March, and we will be down at Westminster in the Spring, letting the government know that we are not going to go away."

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In the latest video interview with FTAdviser, Ms Tarttelin called on more women to join Waspi to help the campaign with funding its legal challenges, and asked more women who were not informed of the changes to their state pension age to write to the Department for Work & Pensions.

Last year, under secretary of state at the Department for Work & Pensions Richard Harrington stated there would be "no more money" given to the Waspi women, but Ms Tarttelin is hopeful that continued pressure on the government and the DWP will cause the government to change its mind.

The situation arose because state pensions legislation written in 1995 - more than 20 years ago - raised the state pension age for women by six years.

However, this had not been communicated effectively or, in some instances, at all, meaning thousands of women have retired, only to find out they have been left with a six-year gap in income and no means to fund it.

Ms Tarttelin said: "I do not know what some people think 1950s-born women are living on. Many women cannot still be working, for one reason or the other, and they are without income.

"Many of these women have very little left: they sold houses, they have very little in the way of savings and they didn't know about the changes."

Waspi's campaign statement is clear: they wish to achieve "fair transitional state pension arrangements for women born in the 1950s who have been affected by the state pension age changes."

For Ms Tarttelin, this equates to the creation of a non-means-tested bridging pension to provide an income and with compensation for losses for those women who have already reached their state pension age.

However, there have been claims that what Waspi wants will be to the detriment of other groups, for example, women born slightly later on.

When asked about this, Ms Tarttelin said this claim was "missing the point". "There are many groups in society looking for further help from the government and the government does have to make a choice. That is true.

"But one injustice following on from another injustice does not make it better. These women, many of whom paid 45 years in national insurance, are left with almost no notice of a six-year gap in income. What do people think they are living on?