Meeting of the Parliament 01 May 2024
I pay tribute to all Women Against State Pension Inequality campaigners, in particular those in Ayrshire WASPI, whom many MSPs met when the group visited Parliament two weeks ago. Their dedication, courage and tireless advocacy have shone the brightest light possible on the injustice facing women who were born in the 1950s.
The problem was created by successive Labour, coalition and Tory Westminster Governments, which raised the state pension age for women without giving them due notice. As a result, 3.7 million women across the UK who were born between 6 April 1950 and 5 April 1960 were thrown into an impossible situation. That includes more than 336,000 in Scotland and 6,940 in the North Ayrshire and Arran constituency alone. The DWP’s figures make plain the scale of the hardship. In North Ayrshire and Arran, between 2013 and February 2021, the number of women aged 60 and above who were claiming incapacity benefits rose by 315 per cent, while working-age out-of-work benefit claims increased by 472 per cent.
That generation of women had already been a victim of pay discrimination. Without enough notice to enable them to plan financially, WASPI women found themselves having to work years longer than they had anticipated. Many who could not retire or who retired from work anticipating a state pension have endured financial hardship because they were unable to access the pension that they deserved and were promised.
I know from speaking to women who have been affected by the scandal how much it has devastated lives. Pushed into poverty as what savings they had dwindled away, women have had to abandon plans to care for elderly or infirm relatives or take low-paid, insecure or manual work.
The scale of that injustice is matched only by the dignity of the WASPI campaign itself. After five long years, the UK Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published its final report on “Women’s State Pension age: our findings on injustice and associated issues”. The report vindicated campaigners, finding that thousands of women were impacted by the DWP’s “maladministration” and failure to properly notify them about changes to the state pension. The report stated that women lost
“opportunities to make informed decisions about”
their finances, and that that
“diminished their sense of personal autonomy and financial control.”
Despite that vindication, the ombudsman cannot force the UK Government to pay compensation. Shockingly, the DWP indicated its refusal to comply, which led the ombudsman to take the rare but necessary step of asking Parliament to intervene. However, following a statement on women’s state pension age at Westminster on 25 March, neither the Tories nor Labour is committed to delivering any compensation. Despite at least 12 shadow cabinet members and Keir Starmer previously supporting calls for restitution, not a single one of them repeated that backing following the ombudsman’s report.
Meanwhile, more than 277,000 WASPI women have already passed away without receiving recompense. More WASPI women die on each new day of dither, delay and deferment from the UK Government and His Majesty’s loyal Opposition.
In contrast, the SNP demands that, after years of UK Government inaction, WASPI women must now receive the justice, apology and compensation that they deserve without further delay.
My wife, Patricia Gibson, who is the MP for North Ayrshire and Arran, has vigorously championed the cause of WASPI women, as Douglas Ross pointed out, and she is the only MP to have spoken in every Westminster debate on the subject since her election in 2015. She will lead a back-bench business debate in the House of Commons on 16 May, after which MPs will vote on whether or not they support justice and the delivery of prompt compensation for WASPI women. It is not the warm words that the Tories and Labour offer today that the women seek, but recompense. On that day, we will see where each party truly stands on that important issue.
16:11