Waspi women: We are not giving up the fight

Women campaigning about the impact of changes to the state pension age have vowed to continue after the government rejected compensation for them.

“We’re certainly not giving up the fight,” said Debbie de Spon, membership director of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign.

Meanwhile, politicians have called for the government to backtrack on the decision, with Labour MP Brian Leishman saying he was “appalled”.

But the government have said there was no evidence of “direct financial loss” and that there was “considerable awareness” of changes to the pension age.

Campaigners say that 3.6 million women born in the 1950s were not properly informed of the rise in state pension age to bring them into line with men.

Ms de Spon told the BBC Radio Four Today programme that the government’s decision was “very disappointing” and that many of members of the Labour Cabinet had been “very supportive of Waspi” over the years.

“We think it’s time we called in some of that support,” she said.

Nine months ago, a parliamentary ombudsman had recommended compensation of between £1,000 and £2,950 for each of those affected, after a six year investigation.

Ms de Spon said: “It makes rather a mockery of that system if the [government] can cherry-pick which parts of that investigation they choose to accept.”

The Liberal Democrats had earlier said the stance “sets an extremely worrying precedent” in its rejection of the ombudsman’s findings.

However, the government has said compensation could cost up to £10.5bn.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that would “impose a further burden on the taxpayer”.