The chair of the WASPI campaign has spoken of her frustration with pension minister Mel Stride after he refused to take action over the issue.
The Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions was quizzed about when the Government would decided on compensation for those affected by the WASPI (Women against state pension inequality) issue.
He told ITV: “There’ll be no undue delay in us coming forward, but I do want to have sufficient time. There are very strong feelings about this on all sides of the argument as to whether compensation should be paid or not.”
WASPI chair Angela Madden told Express.co.uk: “We don’t understand why Mel Stride needs more time to consider.
“He had the same information that we had when the interim report came out before Christmas. We all gave commentary back on January 19.
“So why he needs more time to integrate a report that he saw at least six months ago for the first time, is incredible really.
“It’s just another delaying tactic is what we feel, and how much time do they need? Why is his time more important than our time? We’ve been fighting this fight for nine years.”
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman recently published its long-awaited report into the WASPI issue, recommending compensation payments of between £1,000 and £2,950.
The report also called on Parliament to take up the issue and decide if and what level of compensation should be granted to the 3.8 million women.
Mr Stride was criticised by one of his own constituents this week. 77-year-old Avril phoned into LBC to voice her fury at the state pension being deemed a ‘benefit’.
She said she had written to Mr Stride about the issue. She fumed: “I said to him, this is ridiculous.
“It’s not a benefit, it’s something that we have paid in for. When I paid in for it, it was deemed a pension as a private pension, so you got it at the age you got it.”
WASPI campaigners will be renewing their efforts to put pressure on MPs to call for a vote and a decision on the question of compensation, when MPs return to Parliament next week.
The campaign has had cross-party support from individual MPs with a bill previously put forward for the women to get payouts of £10,000 or more.
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