The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has declined a request from Labour MP, John McDonnell, to meet with a delegation of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaigners to “talk about their plight and find a way forward” amid an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) into the way the DWP communicated changes to retirement age.
DWP Minister, Laura Trott, was also unable to comment when asked by the SNP’s Alan Brown about the impact of the cost of living crisis on 3.8 million WASPI women who have been affected by the change to retirement age. The Kilmarnock and Loudoun MP urged the UK Government to “ step up to the plate and agree fair and swift compensation” for those women “suffering that injustice”.
The WASPI campaign identified around 3.8 million women born in the 1950s who suddenly found they would have to work many more years when the State Pension age was increased to 65 between 2016 and 2018 and then to 66, for both men and women across the UK in October, 2020.
