Clare Wilkins, Nottingham Socialist Party
WASPI women have been campaigning for over a decade. Women born between April 1950 and April 1960 worked and paid National Insurance to qualify for their state pensions at age 60. They lost out when the previous Tory government increased the state pension age from 60 to 65, without being informed adequately or with enough time.
Because of this, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman recommended in March 2024 that the women, who lost tens of thousands of pounds in pensions, be compensated between £1,000 and £2,950. Labour politicians supported the WASPI women when they were in opposition, happy to pose with campaigners to attack the Tories.
But on 17 December, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) minister Liz Kendall announced that not only would there be no compensation but also that there had been sufficient notice from DWP, and there was no real evidence of significant detriment to the women. This completely contradicted the findings of the ombudsman’s report. Cynically, she left it till the eve of the Christmas recess to make the announcement.
The Labour government says that compensation would be a ‘detrimental cost to the taxpayer’ but 9 million of 12 million pensioners are taxpayers and, with tax thresholds frozen till 2028, almost all state pensioners will be paying tax. The tax burden is concentrated on poor pensioners and low-paid workers rather than those who salt their riches away in tax havens, or the big companies who pay little to no tax.
Our state pension is the lowest in Europe and you have to have 35 years of National Insurance payments to qualify in full. Only 2 million pensioners get the full amount. Pensioners who qualified for state pension before 2016 receive the ‘basic state pension’, lower than the ‘new state pension’. Over 2 million pensioners live in poverty and DWP figures show that the cut to the winter fuel payment will plunge up to 100,000 more into poverty.
We need a liveable state pension at an age that enables everyone to have a decent and dignified life in older age. And instead of the false choice between pensioners and workers, take the wealth out of the hands of the super-rich bosses to pay for it! As none of the parties will stand up for us, we need one that will – a mass workers’ party armed with a socialist programme.
