For immediate release

WASPI campaigners have gathered outside the recent Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, to protest again the UK Government’s decision not to award 1950s-born women compensation following changes to their state pension.

Nearly a year ago, an ombudsman, UK Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) concluded that there had been maladministration from the UK Government, and that a compensation scheme must be established.

More than 330,000 Scots women born in the 1950s were not adequately warned about changes to the UK state pension – including over 21,000 women in South Lanarkshire.

Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaigners point out that the pension changes led to many women experiencing financial loss, and negative impacts on their health and emotional wellbeing. 

The UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, and Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, are among senior Labour figures who previously backed the WASPI campaign – alongside their Scottish Labour colleagues.

Despite this, last December Keir Starmer claimed the Treasury could not afford to pay affect women any compensation, despite Labour’s pre-government pledges.

Local MP, Michael Shanks who had previously joined WASPI women on a protest march in Glasgow, and was pictured holding a pledge supporting ‘fair and fast compensation’, then appeared on the BBC Politics Live programme stating compensation would not be “a good use of public money at this time”.

This week, it has emerged that the WASPI campaign has sent a ‘letter before action’ to the UK Department for Work and Pensions, warning of High Court proceedings if the issue is not resolved.

Speaking at the protest in Glasgow, Burnside resident Anne Potter, the co-ordinator for the Glasgow, Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire WASPI groups, said women are dying waiting for the state pension compensation.

Anne said:

“It is a betrayal. We have been disappointed that the UK Government have not kept to the promises that they made over the last few years, that they were going to support us and give us the compensation we need.

“We will keep going until they accept that they have made a mistake, and I would hope that they’re going to put it right.”

Rutherglen Constituency MSP Clare Haughey added:

“From the moment the Labour government came into office, pensioners in Rutherglen and Cambuslang have been left behind and let down – first when they scrapped the Winter Fuel Payment, and then when they broke their promise to compensate WASPI women.  

“Leading Labour politicians promised them fair and fast compensation – but that promise appears to be worth nothing now that they’ve got the power to deliver it.

“It is right that the WASPI Women are holding them to their word, and I fully support them in doing so.  The SNP will always stand for justice for the women who unfairly had their pension age changed without their knowledge and I urge Scottish Labour to do the same.”  

ENDS