Jenny Cox says she has lost out on tens of thousands of pounds (Image: Howard Cox / Getty)
A WASPI woman has hit out at the Government, saying that its decision not to award compensation is “inconsolably heartbreaking” – and has cost her £35,000.
Jenny Cox, 71, left home at 17 to work for two big corporations for more than 20 years before working for her husband’s business. She then retrained as a psychotherapist and counsellor, and received a “very meagre self-employed wage”.
Mrs Cox was born in 1954, and is one of many who has called for women born in that decade to receive the money that they feel is owed to them after not being properly informed about their state pension age being raised from 60 to 65 to equalise it with men.
The £10bn plea was rejected earlier this week by the Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall. WASPI is an organisation founded in 2015 that has been campaining for the move.
Mrs Cox, who is the wife of Reform UK’s candidate for London’s mayoralty earlier this year, and the founder of the motoring campaign group FairFuelUK, Howard Cox, has signed up to the group’s website, and “followed them avidly”.
She added that the rejection has made her feel as though the female claimants are viewed as “subordinate to men”.
READ MORE: Diane Abbott’s scathing seven-word rebuke of Keir Starmer in WASPI row [REPORT]
Liz Kendall rejected WASPI womens’ plea for compensation earlier this week (Image: Getty)
Mrs Cox told Express.co.uk: “In 2001, at 47, I was also diagnosed and treated for breast cancer. I had no option to drop my hours, but that was okay as I had worked well for the requisite number of working years to qualify for the state pension.
“Besides, I would be getting my state pension to help with the financial implications of leaving paid work, wouldn’t I?! That is what I believed would happen. How wrong I was.”
She added: “I have always been meticulous about keeping records of all my financial affairs. I can categorically attest that I never received letters from DWP regarding the rise in my state pension age to 65/66.
“I’ve been a forward planner, and the shock of finally realising I wouldn’t be receiving my state pension for another six years sent me into an angry spiral that significantly affected my health. But I continued helping my husband.”
Mrs Cox also said: “When I heard that compensation, recommended by the independent Ombudsman, would not take place, I was more than angry.
“It brought all the injustices I’d felt 10 years earlier when I reached 60 and thrown forward against my will towards financial insecurity and uncertainty in my late, fragile years.
“The WASPI campaign has been legitimately fought for many years. It seemed that a final breakthrough had been made at the end of the Conservative government to be positively implemented, with Labour in the pre-election campaign promising to deliver our compensation.
“But their latest decision now that they are in Government is inconsolably heartbreaking.
“I honestly believe this decision was made by very well-off, younger, opportunistic, clueless politicians, (surprisingly women), now with undeserved Government power and no real-life experiences. The decision is unjustifiable, ageist, and misinformed.”
WASPI women say they have been betrayed (Image: Getty)
“If means testing is necessary, then be honest and do it, but not just for those on pension credit. As many others are, I am £5 over the threshold to qualify. This is another deliberate crass decision sending us into impoverishment.
“I calculated that I’d missed out on at least £35,000 a while ago. Wishfully, I’d thought the DWP would catch up and repay their mistake. Always with women! And always far too late.
“What is it with women Mr DWP? In your eyes, we’re subordinate to men. We are entitled to the lives we have paid for decades, too. In fact, my pension is over £200 less than my husband’s. How did this happen?
“Not only has this cost me thousands, but it has not enabled me to dream of positive plans. My parents didn’t miraculously get younger, and my mortgage couldn’t be paid off. At 70, it’s still unpaid. Unbelievable, but I am not unique.
“Personally, I think the DWP should compensate every WASPI lady in full. They can work it out, can’t they, or is this another failing?
“They’ve already waited so long to pay out, which is so obviously deliberate, as they see many of us have died. They are changing the goalposts yet again. This is repulsive behaviour.
“They had every opportunity to evaluate the figures needed to refund on entering Government, and it should have been one of their first ‘difficult choices’ to pay.
“When Labour was elected, I expected them to honour the independent recommendation to compensate us at least 10 per cent of what we deserved. However, seeing how they operate so dishonestly, I am not surprised at their duplicity.”
Sir Keir Starmer has defended the Government’s decision (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted that paying compensation was not affordable.
When asked by Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake if rejecting the financial package was part of his “Government of change” earlier this week, the Prime Minister described delays in communicating changes to the state pension age for women born in the 1950s as “unacceptable”, and criticised George Osborne’s move to accelerate the programme when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Sir Keir added: “It is a serious issue. It is a complex issue. The research, as he knows, shows that 90 per cent of those impacted knew about the changes that were taking place.
“I am afraid to say the taxpayers simply cannot afford the tens of billions of pounds in compensation when the evidence does show that 90 per cent of those impacted did know about it. That is because of the state of our economy.”
The Chancellor Rachel Reeves told broadcasters: “I understand that women affected by the changes to the state pension age feel disappointed by this decision, but we looked in full at the ombudsman recommendations and they said that around 90 per cent of women did know that these changes were coming.
“And as Chancellor, I have to account for every penny of taxpayers’ money spent.
“And given that the vast majority of people did know about these changes, I didn’t judge that it would be the best use of taxpayers’ money to pay an expensive compensation bill for something that most people knew was happening.”
