Three sisters from Lancashire feel 'betrayed' after government announces no Waspi pension payout

ITV Granada Reports political correspondent Lise McNally spoke to the three sisters

Three sisters say they feel "betrayed" after the government announced women born in the 1950s will not receive state pension compensation.

Around 3.5 million women who were on the cusp of retirement, or heading towards it, were affected when the changes to the state pension age rose from 60 to 65.

The sisters, from Cleveleys, in Lancashire, have spent years fighting for their peers as part of campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) and say those affected did not get enough time to prepare.

Despite an ombudsman recommending compensation be paid the prime minister says it would cost the country billions, which taxpayers simply cannot afford.

“They just want us to die, to go quietly and die," Norma Elkington, 67, said.

"We've been going to demonstrations in London, and demonstrating in the cold and the rain, we’re doing it because we want to defend the weak.

"We met women there who have had to sell their homes, where they’ve lived all their lives. They’ve had to sell their possessions.”

The women are some of thousands who, on the cusp of retirement, were sent letters telling them they would have to wait longer than they expected to receive their state pensions.

The move was to bring women in line with the retirement age for men.

But Susan Dutton, 69, says it did not leave enough time to plan financially: “Just think, getting to 66 and finding out, oh no, you’re now not getting that till 73, 74, how would they feel about that?”

While Mary Waterhouse, 72, says others did not get long enough to look for more age-appropriate work.

“I was a carer and I was hoisting people in and out of bed," she said. "I have my own problems with arthritis and I started to wonder who was the carer and who was the cared-for?”

Waspi campaigners say 3.8 million people were not properly warned of the changes, and demanded £10,000 per person.

In a report this year, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) recommend the women should be compensated, with payments of between £1,000 and nearly £3,000.

But Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announced on Monday the government had rejected the Ombudsman's suggestion of a flat rate payout, partly because it would cost up to £10.5 billion.

However, she did accept the finding of maladministration and has apologised for a 28-month delay in writing to affected women.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said she understood the Waspi women’s disappointment, but said the ombudsman recommendations found “around 90% of women did know these changes were coming” and added “as chancellor, I have to account for every penny of taxpayers’ money spent”.

Sir Keir Starmer, Deputy Prime Minister and Ashton-under-Lyne MP Angela Rayner, along with Rachel Reeves, are among senior ministers who backed the Waspi campaign when Labour was in opposition.

Something Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch was keen to point out at Prime Minister Questions: "For years the Prime Minister and his cabinet played politics with the Waspi women.

"The Deputy Prime Minister said Conservatives were stealing their pensions. She [Angela Rayner] promised to compensate them in full. Another broken promise.”