Jim Shannon: ...the Minister, I do not believe that we have just yet. I encourage the Minister to continue discussions with his Department to ensure that these matters are addressed. We ask for an apology for the WASPI women. We ask for the issue of maladministration to be addressed. That is quite simple when what has happened has been categorised by the Department itself as maladministration. If that has...
Paul Maynard: There are currently no plans to meet with WASPI representatives. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s investigation on State Pension age communications is ongoing. Section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”. The Department is cooperating fully with the Ombudsman in their investigation.
Steve McCabe: ...last year. And, of course, there are the hidden costs. A prudent Chancellor would have put something aside for the contaminated blood scandal, the victims of the Post Office Horizon nightmare, the WASPI—Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign—women debacle and the LGBT ex-service personnel. Those are all things that he should have sorted by now but has ignored, probably...
Delyth Jewell: The 1950s-born women denied their state pensions still await justice. I suggested to you last year that WASPI also stands for 'Waiting and Still Pleading for Integrity'. They should not still be waiting. It's a scandal that the UK Government has dragged its feet for so long that women have died before getting the money they're owed, and they are due financial redress. I hope, I trust that the...
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage: .... Nearly one in five pensioners—almost 2 million—now lives in poverty. The Government have failed on the uptake of help for poorer pensioners. I will take the opportunity to mention the WASPI generation, who were not adequately informed of the pension-age changes which left their financial and career planning in tatters as seven years were added to their pensionable age when they had...
Clare Haughey: ...plans to review universal credit, but I have not heard anything about what would be done about pensions. I know that the Labour Party has supported the Women Against State Pension Inequality—WASPI—campaign. Can Mr O’Kane tell me what will be done to compensate the WASPI women if his party forms the next Westminster Government?
Clare Haughey: ...that “pensions are safer” in the United Kingdom. How hollow those words are now. Westminster has presided over the injustice that has been done to Women Against State Pension Inequality—WASPI—women; the state pension is shamefully inadequate as a result of years of austerity; and, although the state pension age is expected to rise to 68, reports this week suggest that it may rise...
Alan Brown: ...1960 inclusive who have been affected by increases in the state pension age; and for connected purposes. Like so many injustices created by Westminster, the lack of resolution for the 3.8 million WASPI—Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign—women is a disgrace. Those 3.8 million women were given the bombshell that their state pension age was going to increase from 60 to 66...
David Linden: ...meet unexpected rising costs. I met the Trussell Trust just this morning, and it is certainly seeing a larger number of pensioners using its service than before. This is of course the case for many WASPI women, given that the ombudsman found that there was indeed maladministration in the communication from the Department for Work and Pensions, with the cost of living crisis certainly...
Deidre Brock: ...election, should we not debate some of the key legacies of the last 14 years of Tory rule? Where should we start? There are still the scandalously unresolved scandals, such as infected blood, the WASPI women—Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign—and Post Office Horizon, to name a very few, but has the Leader of the House had time to reflect on recent comments from Sir Michael...
Justin Madders: ...good faith and promises being kept. If we look not just at the schemes that have been mentioned today but at others—I am thinking of the FOSPEN, the Midland Bank clawback issue, and of course the WASPI women—we see that there is a whole generation of pensioners out there who feel that they have not been delivered what they were entitled to. What kind of message does that send to the...
Wendy Chamberlain: ...have proof of payment as they do with any other transaction? We know that errors by the Department for Work and Pensions are all too commonplace; we need only to look at the experience of the WASPI women—the Women Against State Pension Inequality—to see that. Those women, through no fault of their own, lost their ability to plan for their retirements. They lost their financial...
Deidre Brock: ...in the current cost of living crisis, which we know impacts women more. They could legislate for mandatory gender and ethnicity pay gap reporting. They could finally deliver compensation for WASPI women—Women Against State Pension Inequality —who have waited far too long to receive justice. More broadly, they could tackle the gender pension gap, as yearly incomes among pensioners are...
Delyth Jewell: Diolch for that. WASPI doesn't only stand for Women Against State Pension Inequality, it also stands for waiting and still pleading for integrity—integrity from a Westminster Government that has abandoned all sense of fairness, of decency in how it deals with these women, these millions of women who have been denied the money that is rightfully theirs. I want to thank you for meeting some...
Martyn Day: ...relation to frozen British pensions. There is a considerable amount wrong with pension policy in the UK, from having one of the lowest rates in north-west Europe, to the abysmal treatment of the WASPI women and the half a million British citizens around the world whose pensions have been frozen due to the failure to establish bilateral agreements, including 127,000 people in Canada....
Stuart McMillan: ...broken. It is also morally bankrupt considering many of the policies that the Tories have imposed on many of our people in our country. One example is women against state pension inequality—the WASPI women—who have been robbed of their pensions, which is absolutely shocking. I could go on, but I know that I do not have time. The fiscal framework might help a little, but it still falls...
Marco Longhi: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has already found the Department for Work and Pensions guilty of maladministration on two counts in relation to the WASPI women—the Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign—once in 2005 and the other in 2006. I forget who was in charge at the time; it must be my age. Many women have suffered as a result in a variety of ways. Will the...
Beatrice Wishart: ...through the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign. When looking to maximise income support for older people living in poverty, what efforts can the Scottish Government make to support the WASPI women?
Mick Antoniw: ...agreement that the original reports were unacceptable and didn't actually do justice to the issue. I think that is the issue that we're waiting for the outcome of at the moment. All of us will know WASPI women; there are so many of them. The crux, as I said, in this, of course, is the way in which the matter was dealt with was certainly an injustice, in my view, as a breach of the contract...
Gavin Newlands: ...having to make life-changing decisions, having a detrimental impact both financially and emotionally. In 2021 the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman ruled against the Government in the WASPI battle, with the watchdog ruling that the Department for Work and Pensions was guilty of maladministration by failing to provide adequate notice to 3.8 million women. However, the WASPI women...