Labour Government accused of 'betrayal' after rejecting compensation for Waspi women

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The Labour Government has been accused of "betrayal" after it announced it will not give Waspi women compensation.Labour Work and Pension Secretary Liz Kendall announced that women born in the 1950s - who campaigners say were not properly informed of the rise to the state pension age - will not be given any sort of financial payout.The SNP said the move was "a devastating betrayal".

The Lib Dems said it was "a day of shame" while the Greens said Labour should "hang their heads in shame".A parliamentary ombudsman recommended payouts of between £1,000 and £2,950 to those affected nine months ago.

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign had said there should be payments of at least £10,000 each.Kendall told the Commons: “The Government does not believe paying a flat rate to all women at a cost of up to £10.5 billion would be fair or proportionate to taxpayers."SNP DWP Spokesperson Kirsty Blackman said: “This Labour Government announcement is a devastating betrayal of the millions of WASPI women who have spent years campaigning for justice."Having been let down for so many years by successive Tory Governments there was a sense that Labour might finally live up to their promise of ‘Change', but instead Labour has confirmed that they will betray those women and pull yet another shady Westminster trick."For years Labour politicians, including Anas Sarwar, backed the WASPI campaign and promised to help deliver justice - now in just their first year in power, they turned their back on millions of affected women."This scandal has dragged on for too long and it's long past time for Westminster to do the right thing, apologise for the years of delay and deliver fair and fast compensation to all those women