SNP challenges Labour to 'stand-up' for pensioners and spend billions compensating Waspi women

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The SNP has repeated its demand that billions of pounds of taxpayers' money are spent on compensating women impacted by a long-planned change to the state pension system.The Nationalists reacted with fury earlier this month after the UK Government announced it would not follow the recommendations of the Parliamentary Ombudsman on the issue.It was first announced in 1995 by John Major's Tory government the state pension age for women would gradually rise to 65, in line with men, from the previous age of 60.In 2010, the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government decided to speed up the changes to reduce the overall cost of the state pension.The SNP has insisted the women impacted by the change should be compensated.About 3.6 million women were affected by the 1995 decision to increase the pension age to 65.

Of those, 2.6 million were affected by the decision to bring the date forward to 2018.The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign group has held protests about the issue and lobbied successive governments.The group wants lump sum payments for those who have already reached state pension age, plus extra income for those who have not yet been able to claim their state pension.In March 2024, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) said the government had failed to adequately inform thousands of women that the state pension age had changed.But Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall this month confirmed Waspi women would not receive compensation.Both Kendall and Prime Minister Keir Starmer previously supported the Waspi campaign, but the party didn't commit to paying compensation in its manifesto ahead of the 2024 general election.Starmer later said: "90 per cent of those impacted did know about