The Department for Communities has issued a response after a query was raised by an MP about having a WASPI compensation scheme for Northern Ireland.
SDLP MP Colum Eastwood recently asked the Government about having a compensation scheme for Northern Ireland, asking if the DWP "has made an estimate of the annual cost of implementing a compensation scheme for affected women in Northern Ireland". This came after the Labour Government said there would not be compensation for the WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) 1950s-born women, who were affected when the state pension age increased from 60 to 65 and then 66.
The dispute is over the fact the WASPI campaigners claim many women did not know of the change. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found there was 'maladministration' in how the DWP communicated the change, recommending payouts of between £1,000 and £2,950.
But Labour has dismissed the idea, arguing most of the women knew and that it would be a poor use of taxpayer funds to issue compensation. In response to the question about a compensation scheme for Northern Ireland, then pensions minister Emma Reynolds said: "The state pension is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland. These matters are the responsibility of the Department for Communities in Northern Ireland."
A DfC spokesperson has now provided a comment. The group said: "Although pensions are a devolved matter, Northern Ireland’s pensions policy and legislation generally operates in line with pension provision in Great Britain meaning, in effect, there is a single pension system and regulatory regime across the United Kingdom.
"Any deviation from parity with Great Britain, including higher rates of benefits or payment of compensation, would result in increased costs to the Northern Ireland Block Grant." A large number of MPs support the WASPI campaign, with many of them championing the cause during a debate on the matter this week in Westminster Hall.
DUP MP Carla Lockhart spoke at the debate of how thousands of WASPI women in Northern Ireland "feel absolutely betrayed by this Government" after the decision not to compensate. She said: "Women today are in financial hardship because of this betrayal. It is morally indefensible that not a penny has been made available to these women."
Former shadow Chancellor John McDonnell was also among those to speak out to oppose the Government decision not to provide payouts. He stated it had "crushed people" that the Government had decided not to implement the Ombudsman's recommendations.
He urged: "I have to say to my own party in Government, what we need now is the Government to sit down with the WASPI women. Either implement this scheme or mediate for an alternative. We need action.
"This issue isn't going to go away, we're not going to go away. The women aren't going away. Tragically some of them are dying, but this campaign will go on until we secure justice."
WASPI pensioner Colleen Webster spoke of her dismay at Labour's decision. She believes that many WASPI pensioners voted for them last year hoping they would go ahead with payouts, as many individual Labour candidates said they backed the campaign.
She commented: "We are so devastated to think that they have stabbed us in the back. I think they would have got in anyway in the General Election, but I know that their majority would not have been so large if it wasn't for all the WASPI women voting for them.
"We honestly believed that they would pay our compensation, and for them to turn around and say they won't do it, is unbelievable." She only discovered when she was 59 that her state pension age was going up from 60 to 66, after she lost her job, with her job coach at the job centre giving her the bad news.
She was forced to claim benefits for almost seven years up to her retirement age, claiming she struggled to get a job because of her age.
English (United States) ·