‘We’ll right this pension wrong’
The Labour candidate for Stirling this week highlighted the party’s pension promise on Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI).
Women born between April 6, 1950, and April 5, 1955, would be paid £100 for each week of entitlement lost.
Those born between April 6, 1955, and April 6, 1960, would receive smaller amounts.
The Tory-Lib Dem coalition government increased the women’s state pension age to 65.
WASPI campaigners have been battling to improve transitional arrangements to help and support women born in the 1950s hit by the change.
It was said the changes leave the women affected – who expected to retire at 60 – no time to put in place alternative financial provision to see them through to the new limit.
Mary Kate Ross said: “Labour have prepared a scheme to compensate these women for a historical wrong.
“It is one that they were not able to prepare for and for which they’ve had to suffer serious financial consequences as a result. Many have been hit by a combination of poverty and stress, having lost out on what they had put in.
“Righting this wrong is basic human decency and we all need to appreciate the sense of injustice and anger that these women feel about the changes that were imposed upon them.
“This election is a once-in-ageneration chance to rebuild and transform our country. The future is ours to make. It is time for real change so that no one is held back and no community is left behind. I urge everybody to vote Labour on December 12.”
It is believed 3.7 million women are affected by the pension age change. Political opponents want to know how Labour will meet the cost of funding compensation to to the WASPI women, estimated at £58 billion over five years.