WASPI women lose £40,000 after being issued DWP compensation blow

WASPI women lose £40,000 after being issued DWP compensation blow
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WASPI women have said state pension "is a right, not a benefit" as they lose over £40,000. The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) is under increasing pressure to give out payouts after the Ombdusman report earlier this year.

Chair Angela Madden has appeared on GB News to strengthen calls for financial compensation. She explained the failure to properly communicate changes to the women’s state pension age to those affected have cost them over £40,000.

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign is seeking "fair and fast" compensation worth £2,950. Speaking to GB News' Andrew Pierce at the Labour Party's annual conference, Ms Madden said: "Many of us planned to retire at 60, and took early retirement before we knew of the changes.

"We also lost out on wages and extra payments that could have made into our pension schemes if we had known the state pension was going to rise to 66." Ms Madden said: "If the Chancellor implemented the recommendations by the Ombudsmen, it would cost the treasury around £10billion as there are around 3.6million Waspi women and this is the issue for the Government."

Ms Madden said: "The average Waspi woman would have expected a state pension of around £8,000 to 10,000 a year so on average they have lost £40,000, a lot of money." She said: "There are many many young people who support what we are doing. There is no generational divide on this.

"We worked and contributed to the scheme [the state pension] for over 40 years and we expected to get what we were told out of it and we didn't." The Waspi chairwoman called for action from the Government, stating: "Successive Governments have not done the right thing but the time is now to do the right thing.

"Successive Governments have saved £181billion by removing our pension without notice. We are asking for a fraction of that back." She said: "We are impatient but we are willing to give them time to sort things out."