Waspi pensioner campaigners vow to fight on despite law change blow

CAMPAIGNING women from Portsmouth have said they will not let new pension rules defeat them.
Part of the Solent WASPI groupPart of the Solent WASPI group
Part of the Solent WASPI group

Members of the Solent Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) suffered a 'double whammy' after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) ruled in January that both partners in a couple would have to be of state pension age to claim Pension Credit.

Previously Pension Credit was available if one partner in a low-income couple was of state pension age.

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Many Waspi women had hoped that once their partner had reached state pension age, as a couple they may have had access to the Pension Credit benefit.

But the DWP’s reform means that from May 15 these mixed age couples will only be able to claim Universal Credit.  It is thought this will equate to a loss of up to £7,000 a year for some couples.

Solent Waspi’s co-ordinator, Shelagh Simmons, said: 'The Pension Credit change is allegedly to remove the anomaly of someone below state pension age receiving an inappropriate benefit. If only the government had paid such attention to the other lifetime anomalies Waspi women have faced – for example, unequal pay and pension opportunities - before inflicting further financial damage on us, we might have believed it was all in the interests of equality.'

She added: 'Trapped in the twilight zone between 60 (the age we expected to get our state pensions) and 66-67, and often unable to work or claim any form of support, some of us are told by the DWP that our husbands will have to “keep” us.

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'For single women, of course, there is no such option. And women in same-sex relationships have been doubly impacted. The truth is that all women born in the 1950s have been shabbily treated because of our date of birth. Where is the equality, and dignity, in that?'

Their cause was backed by Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan. 'The latest policy which punishes mixed age couples and hits the most vulnerable hardest is highly unacceptable,' he said.

'The fact that this legislation was pushed through on January 14, when some people were preoccupied with Brexit is worrying. Solent Waspi know that I am on their side in seeking to end this injustice, I will be working with them this year to make sure the government finally listen.'