WASPI campaign boss issues verdict on triple lock plus policy for pensioners
EXCLUSIVE: The campaigners are pushing for the future Government to finally grant them compensation.
The leader of the WASPI campaign has slammed the Conservatives' policy suggestion to increase the personal allowance for pensioners and says such a move would benefit few pensioners represented by her campaign.
The Tories unveiled their 'triple lock plus' policy this week, which would involve the personal allowance for pensioners increasing using the triple lock metric.
Angela Madden, chair of WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality), told Express.co.uk: "I think that’s just a bit of a ploy really to get older people’s votes cheaply.
"He knows there are 8 million older people and that will mean something but not very much.
"The very poorest people won’t really benefit from that at all because if you’re only on the state pension and nothing else, then you won’t reach the threshold anyway."
Her comments come after a pensions expert told Express.co.uk the policy could have a positive impact but would increase pressure on budgeting for the state pension.
Ms Madden said the policy would not help many WASPI generation women, saying: "Very few women are on the full state pension, because of their interrupted work history, with being the child bearers and the child carers.
"You have to have 35 years’ full National Insurance. Very few women in their late 60s or early 70s have that, so we don’t see that as making a material difference, although it’s a good sound bite for Sunak."
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A person typically needs 35 years of National Insurance contributions to get the full new state pension, of £221.20 a week.
Ms Madden previously said the WASPI campaigners would be pushing for Government action on compensation after the General Election on July 4.
She said: "What we’re hoping for, at the very least, is within the first 100 days, have an open debate on the PHSO report, and allow Parliament to have the say that the Ombudsman wanted it to have.
"We’ll be sending those emails, we’ll be having those meetings, we’ll be banging on their door so to speak, to resurrect this as quickly as Parliament is resurrected.
"We’ll be telling the candidates that that is what they can expect."
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published a report in March this year calling for payouts of between £1,000 and £2,950, and urging Parliament to take up the issue.
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