WASPI campaigners have vowed to continue piling pressure on the Government after a bill to secure compensation was delayed.
The bill to set out a compensation scheme for the WASPI (Women against state pension inequality) women was scheduled to have its second reading today (April 19).
But this has now been pushed back until May 17. SNP MP Alan Brown, who first presented the bill in the Commons, said: “I am disappointed I have had to reschedule the potential second reading of the bill.
“This is proof that the way Westminster operates with the Government of the day being able to dictate timings needs to be overhauled.”
The MP said he would fight on to secure fair compensation for the millions of women affected by the issue.
He said: “I have drafted a bill which sets out the criteria and compensation banding levels that would allow the WASPI women to get some form of justice.
“I will continue to work on a cross party basis to garner more support and pressure the Government to do the right thing and address the fact that the DWP was guilty of maladministration and therefore compensation is due to the 3.8 millio women who had their pension age raised by up to 6 years without proper notification.”
The State Pension Age (Compensation) bill has been backed by a cross-party group of MPs, with support from Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat members.
The motion for the bill sets out to “require the Secretary of State to publish proposals for a compensation scheme for women born between 6th April 1950 and 5th April 1960 inclusive who have been affected by increases in the state pension age; and for connected purposes”.
The motion also states: “The purpose of this bill is to bring forward parliamentary intervention to stop those affected women having to wait any longer.
“Fair and fast compensation is the simple scheme that the WASPI women are looking for, using, as a minimum, Level 5 of the ombudsman scale—realistically, however, Level 6 of the PHSO [Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman] bandings is the most appropriate—and this bill could deliver a simple framework.”
Under the PHSO’s bandings for financial remedy, Level 5 provides compensation payouts of between £3,000 and £9,950, while Level 6 is the highest banding, with compensation of £10,000 or more.
The motion hit out at the Ombudsman for its slow action on the controversy. It said: “It is hard to believe that in the almost three years since the maladministration assessment, a solution is still to be recommended by the Ombudsman.
“It is a scandal in itself that the WASPI women had to go to court to confirm the flaws in the second Ombudsman report.”
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