WASPI campaigners waiting for answers
More than 11,000 WASPI women in Renfrewshire are still waiting to find out if they will ever get compensation.
The UK Government has so far failed to say if any compensation will be paid to millions of women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed about the rise in the state pension age.
The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign group has called this an “injustice” that meant many were forced to delay retirement plans without any warning.
An ombudsman has recommended that affected women born in the 1950s receive an apology and compensation of between £1,000 and £2,950.
It means the affected women living in the Paisley and Renfrewshire North and Paisley and Renfrewshire South constituencies could stand to win a share of up to £33million.
But last week Mel Stride MP, the Work and Pensions Secretary, repeatedly refused to say if a decision would be made before the general election.
Pressed by Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain on what happens next, Mr Stride said there were “strong feelings” for and against awarding compensation.
He said: “There’ll be no undue delay in us coming forward, but I do want to have sufficient time.
“There are very strong feelings about this on all sides of the argument as to whether compensation should be paid or not.”
And Mr Stride told the Today programme: “I’m not going to put a precise time limit on it, but we do need to look at these things very carefully.
“I think I owe it to everybody to really make sure that the guiding light in this process is that it is thorough, and that it is conclusive because it has gone on for an awfully long time.”
But while the wait for compensation drags on, campaigners say a WASPI woman dies every 13 minutes.
Research from the House of Commons Library estimates 11,190 Renfrewshire WASPI women were affected by the scandal, which left them without enough time to adjust their savings plans.
If the ombudsman’s recommendations are accepted, total compensation payouts of between £11.2m and £33m would be made to women in the county. In East Renfrewshire, a further 6,020 women are affected, with a compensation bill between £6m and £17.9m.
The overall bill to the taxpayer to compensate 3.6 million WASPI women across the UK would be between £3.6billion and £10.8bn.
WASPI chairman Angela Madden said: “Everyone knows someone who is a WASPI woman, and every MP will have heard from grassroots members of our campaign.
“For nine long years the government has hoped we would just go away, but they have underestimated the strength of feeling and the strength in numbers that we have.
“Finally paying compensation will go some way to right the injustice and is also likely to boost local economies, as women previously in penury enjoy some long-awaited spending power and comfort.
“But that can only happen if the compensation is adequate – reflecting the true injustice we’ve suffered. The Government must allow a Commons vote on compensation.”