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The UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, has defended the government’s decision not to compensate women who were impacted by changes to the state pension age. According to Starmer, the taxpayer cannot afford the cost of such compensation. Campaigners have called for 3.6 million women born in the 1950s to be properly informed of the rise in the state pension age and claim they were not notified of the changes. Sir Keir was questioned on the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions, and an independent government review recommended compensation to the affected women in March. Labour MP Diane Abbott criticised Starmer, stating that Waspi women felt let down by the decision.
Debbie de Spon, membership director of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign, noted that the group would not give up its fight for compensation. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Rebecca Hilsenrath, stated that while the government had acknowledged the delay in writing to women about pension changes, it refused to offer compensation. Sir Keir argued that delays were unacceptable while stating that taxpayers could not afford the billions of pounds in compensation when 90% of the affected women knew of the changes.
The cost of compensation is believed to be as much as £10.5bn, according to the UK government. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, defended the decision, stating that it would not be a good use of taxpayer’s money to pay an expensive compensation bill, particularly when most people knew of the change. Despite this, the campaign believes that many women were not informed of the changes, and former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne should compensate them for government failure.
The coalition government of 2010 sped up the 1995 decision to increase the pension age to 65 for women, affecting 2.6 million women. The campaign group Waspi has been advocating for compensation since the government failed to provide adequate warning or information about the changes. The government would have needed considerable resources and time to provide compensation, which it states would negatively impact other services it maintains
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