Is Labour’s new WASPI promise credible?
Labour’s plan to compensate millions of women hit by the state pension age rise “drives a coach and horses” through its manifesto spending plans, according to a leading think tank.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell says there is a ‘historical debt of honour’ to the women born in the 1950s.
Labour is promising to compensate an estimated 3.7 million women who believed they lost out financially due to changes in the state pension age if the party gains power in the General Election.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the payments were to settle a “historical debt of honour” to the women born in the 1950s.
The party said the payout could amount to £58 billion over five years – with individual payments averaging £15,380 running to a maximum of £31,300.
It follows a lengthy campaign by the so-called “Waspi women” who said they were given insufficient time to prepare for the changes brought in by the former coalition government.
Boris Johnson was challenged by one of the women in the studio audience for Friday night’s BBC Question Time special.
The Prime Minister said that while he sympathised deeply, he could not promise to “magic up that money” for them.
Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), said the scheme to compensate the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) women would lead to “another £12billion of borrowing every year for the next five years”, on top of what Labour has already promised to spend.
The eye-catching promise that was not in the party’s manifesto, comes on the same day as the Tories set out their election stall.
The Waspi campaign is urging the Labour Party to develop a clear framework which outlines how and when this policy would be delivered and how much compensation Waspi women will receive. This is the level of detail that Waspi women deserve, particularly as they decide which party to support when they cast their votes on 12 December.
What are your views? Have you been affected by the change in pension age? Are you convinced that this new pledge is credible and sustainable? Or is this just a hook to get more Labour votes?
