A Dumbarton gran has vowed to continue to fight for compensation for thousands of local women – one year since the DWP was condemned over pension changes.
Liz Daly, of West Dunbartonshire WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality), says the group will carry on demanding for fair compensation after being “robbed” of their state pensions.
An estimated 6,300 women in West Dunbartonshire born between April 6, 1950 and April 5, 1960 face being up to £48,000 out of pocket due to the UK Government’s increases to the state pension age.
In July last year, the Parliamentary Ombudsman found that there had been “maladministration” by the Department for Work and Pensions.
The department had failed to properly notify women, born in the 1950s, about the changes to the state pension age which campaigners, including Liz, say gave them inadequate time to prepare for their retirement.
Over the past 12 months the Ombudsman has been investigating whether this maladministration resulted in injustice – and if so, how the women involved should be compensated.
Liz said: “We have a campaign between June 20 and July 20 and we are calling it the ‘not going away’ campaign because we are continuing to fight for recognition and compensation.
“The Ombudsman declared maladministration so we are saying we should be compensated.
“We won’t get our pension back but we believe we are entitled to compensation for the inconvenience and distress caused by not knowing our pension age would be changing and having to work a further six years for our state pensions.
“It’s the mental anguish and physical exhaustion that’s been caused.
“There are lots of women in West Dunbartonshire who have died before reaching pensionable age. A lot of women I went to school with are sadly no longer here.”
Liz retired from Braehead early education and childcare centre at the age of 65 in June last year and lived with no wage before her state pension kicked-in in December. She said: “I thought I would retire at 60 and had planned for that. I thought I would be able to look after my grandchildren and do a wee bit of travelling.
“I’d been working since I was 15 and I finished a few months before my 66th birthday because I was exhausted.
“I was lucky I had enough savings to keep me going but there are many women who won’t have that and will have to continue working right up until their state pension kicks in when they had planned to retire six years earlier.
“It’s a national disgrace.”
West Dunbartonshire MP Martin Docherty-Hughes recently met with West Dunbartonshire’s WASPI (Women Against State Pension Injustice) campaigners to sign a pledge calling on the UK Government to deliver fair and fast compensation for 1950s-born women impacted by changes to the state pension age.
The SNP MP said: “As a long-standing supporter of West Dunbartonshire’s WASPI women, I’m determined to continue campaigning for the fair compensation they deserve.
“More than 350,000 women in West Dunbartonshire and across Scotland are being robbed of their state pensions by the UK Government – pensions that they have worked hard for all their lives.
“The UK’s cost-of-living crisis is hitting especially hard for those struggling due to changes to the state pension age.
“The Westminster Government has ignored the plight of the WASPI women for too long – and if Boris Johnson thinks we’re going away they can think again.”
A DWP spokeswoman said: “The government decided over 25 years ago that it was going to make the state pension age the same for men and women as a long-overdue move towards gender equality.
“Both the High Court and Court of Appeal have supported the actions of the DWP, under successive governments dating back to 1995, and the Supreme Court refused the claimants permission to appeal.”
