A SADDLEWORTH councillor is leading the area’s call for the government to reconsider its decision on WASPI women.
Women Against State Pension Inequality is demanding payouts for 3.6 million born in the 1950s who were not properly informed of changes first introduced in the 1990s.
However, a push to compensate those affected has so far fallen short after Number 10 rejected a Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) recommendation of a Level 4 payout, which comes to between £1,000 and £2,750.
Now Saddleworth South Councillor Helen Bishop will ask Oldham Council to demand pensions minister Liz Kendall looks again at the decision and what she calls ‘an avoidable scandal.’
In a motion to be put forward at the authority’s meeting on Wednesday, April 9, she also claims more than 11,000 women in the borough are affected, with estimates of compensation owed topping £11 million.
She also wants Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams, as well as parliamentary colleagues Jim McMahon and Lucy Powell, whose constituency takes in Failsworth, along with Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to publicly back the WASPI campaign.
Cllr Bishop states in her motion: “More than 11,600 WASPI women across Oldham Borough stand to lose out on compensation after the Labour government decided to ignore the independent ombudsman’s assessment and go against their long-held policy to support WASPI women.
“It is estimated that the compensation owed to impacted women across Oldham borough would be a minimum of £11,642,500.
“Previous Labour leaders of this council have referred to the situation facing WASPI women as “an injustice” and as recently as March 2023, Oldham Labour were still campaigning to put that injustice right.”
She also asks that: “This council reasserts its support for the WASPI women and regrets the decision of the Labour government to ignore an independent ombudsman’s assessment that compensation should be paid to them.
“Council resolves to instruct the chief executive to write to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall MP asking her to look again at this decision.
“Council further resolves to instruct the Chief Executive to write to the three MPs who represent Oldham Borough as well as the Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, calling on them to publicly support justice for WASPI women.”
The government previously apologised that the changes were not communicated quickly enough but insisted it, “cannot justify paying for a £10.5 billion compensation scheme at the expense of the taxpayer.”
The 1995 and 2011 Pension Acts saw the State Pension age for women rise from 60 to 66 but the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) consistently failed to adequately communicate these changes.
The ombudsman report told the government to pay compensation and apologise to 3.6 million women born in the 1950s and concluded ministers failed to properly notify those impacted by the changes.
However, the government has indicated it does not accept the findings of the report.
In her parliamentary response, Ms Kendall said: “We do not agree with the ombudsman’s approach to injustice or remedy.
“The report does not properly take into account research showing there was actually considerable awareness that the state pension age was increasing.
“It doesn’t sufficiently recognise evidence from the same research that 73 per cent of women aged 45-54 – the very group that covers women born in the 1950s – were aware that the State Pension age was increasing.
“Or research from 2006 that 90 per cent of women aged 45-54 were aware that the state pension age was increasing.
“Second, the report says if letters had been sent earlier it would have affected what women knew about the state pension age. However, we do not agree.”
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