Labour Accused of Betrayal Over Pension Changes Affecting Southport Women

According to House of Commons Library figures up to 10,000 women in Sefton could have been adversely affected by the pension changes smuggled through by successive governments. These are the people that the long standing Waspi  (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaigns sought justice for. Hopes have been dashed this week and recommendations from the Pensions Ombudsman for compensation dismissed by the Labour government. 

Waspi believe 3.6 million women have lost out financially because the government did not adequately communicate the changes over a number of years and women could thus not properly plan for their retirement.

Liberal Democrat councillor, Lynne Thompson, believes that this outcome will be disappointing for many local women.

“ What is even more depressing though is the fact that campaigners were encouraged to believe they had Labour support .” she says," There is a feeling of betrayal as many Labour politicians locally and nationally gave the impression that they backed the Waspi campaigning and were only too happy to be seen supporting it. Now the party is in office, it’s a different story."

"  People might accept that the government has other priorities. There is no reason though why they should accept anyone backing a cause before an election and abandoning it afterwards. I hope that when the issue comes to a vote MPs will vote in the way they originally led people to expect, but I won’t be holding my breath. “

The figures for women affected  to some degree in each constituency in Sefton are- Bootle 5,920 , Sefton Central 6,630 and Southport 6,640.

" Not everyone is affected to the same degree by the changes that began below the radar in the 1990s,” says Cllr.Thompson, ," but some people have been very badly hit and these people are now denied the relatively modest compensation recommended by the Ombudsman of between £1,000 and £2,950.”