Natalie Don-Innes MSP has slammed Labour for ‘betraying a generation of women’ after DWP Secretary Liz Kendall confirmed the Labour Government will not deliver compensation after a recommendation from the UK Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).
In a statement to the House of Commons, Ms Kendall confirmed that the Labour Government would refuse the recommendation to award between £1,000 and £2,950 to women affected by the change in the state pension age.
It comes after the Ombudsman’s report, published in March this year, found that thousands of women may have been affected by DWP’s failure to adequately inform them that the state pension age had changed, adding that the result was that “some women lost opportunities to make informed decisions about their finances.”
As a result, the report recommended that compensation be paid to those affected.
Whilst in opposition, Labour promised to deliver justice for the estimated 3.6 million WASPI women affected by the change in state pension age, while in 2017 Anas Sarwar said that: “Under my leadership, WASPI women will finally receive the justice they deserve.”
Natalie Don-Innes MSP said: “Labour’s decision to refuse compensation to WASPI women is a complete betrayal that highlights that Labour politicians simply cannot be trusted.
“This decision by the UK Labour government is scandalous – this is not the change that Labour promised when seeking people’s votes.
“It is a complete betrayal of all the women who have campaigned for years to set right a wrong committed by successive UK governments.
“We all remember the Labour politicians either in the Scottish Parliament or elsewhere who have stood shoulder to shoulder with the WASPI campaigners offering their support. I hoe they will be able to explain why their party has made this decision.
“No one should ever trust a Labour politician again. So far the UK Labour government have let down families in poverty by voting to retain the Tory two-child benefit cap and then massively reduced the number of pensioners who could receive the winter fuel allowance, and now they can add the WASPI women to the range of people they have let down.”
She added: “The hypocrisy and downright lies of Labour politicians shows that they cannot be trusted. We need to rid ourselves of not only such politicians but also the political system in Westminster that enables them. The sooner we regain our independence the better for everyone in Scotland”.