KEIR Starmer has been urged to act quickly to compenstate women affected by changes to the state pension age.
Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman has written to the new Prime Minister asking him to honor the promises many Labour MPs made to women born in the 1950s during their election campaigns by delivering fair and fast compensation.
Earlier this year, a Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman report instructed the Conservative government to apologise to women affected and administer a compensation plan without delay.
After Starmer's election victory, Angela Madden, chair of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign, urged him not to ignore the recommendations and "let down millions of 1950s-born women".
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Chapman (below) said in her letter: "MPs elected from several other parties, including the Green Party of England and Wales, stood on manifesto commitments to deliver justice for the thousands of women across the UK affected by pension injustices.
"You have the opportunity to show co-operative leadership and solidarity by putting in place a scheme that appropriately compensates women now in their seventies for pension changes that many of them were not aware of.
"This is about justice: for the women directly affected, their families and communities. This is also about equality.
"The women affected have been subjected to structural inequalities their whole lives: gender pay gaps, exclusions from company pension schemes, exclusion from the labour market due to marriage or caring commitments, to name but a few.
"Every 13 minutes, a Waspi woman dies. Every 13 minutes, a woman, who might have lost several years’ worth of her pension – maybe as much as £42,000 – dies without justice or equality. You have the chance to put this right."
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The 1995 Pensions Act and subsequent legislation raised the state pension age for women born on or after April 6, 1950.
The ombudsman investigated complaints that, since 1995, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has failed to provide accurate, adequate and timely information about areas of state pension reform.
The DWP’s handling of the pension age changes meant some women lost opportunities to make informed decisions about their finances.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones told BBC Breakfast on Monday there is "more work to be done" on a compensation plan, adding that the Labour Government needs more details on eligibility for compensation or the “different types of schemes that might need to be designed” to support people in different circumstances.
He asked for a "bit of time" on the matter.
Madden said: “Hundreds of candidates who actively support Waspi's calls for fair and fast compensation have been elected to this new Parliament. This includes over 70 Liberal Democrat MPs who have been steadfast in their commitment to 1950’s-born women and we look forward to working with them to achieve justice.
"With this definitive majority, Labour has been given a strong mandate for delivering change. It is time for them to make good on their MPs’ and candidates’ record of support to deliver a compensation scheme in the first 100 days of this parliament.”
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