The women of the Wasby family suffered horrific misogyny, but in poverty-stricken Britain, they are not a top priority | Polly Toynbee
SSome women born in the 1950s were not adequately warned that they would have to work for up to six extra years before receiving their state pension. Some have been left to rely on meager benefits while they wait for their delayed pensions. In March, the Ombudsman ruled they deserved redress for their failure to communicate, and recommended compensation of between £1,000 and £2,950 each for the mismanagement.
However, the government claims that this is unjustified on the basis that about 90% of these women know the new retirement age. Councilor Rachel Reeves said: “Given that the vast majority of people were aware of these changes, I did not think it would be better to use taxpayers’ money to foot an expensive compensation bill for something that most people are aware of.” “It was happening.”
The women’s cause is justified, as I’ve written before, but in a country plagued by poverty, “Wasp Women” have slipped to the bottom of the list of priorities. Here’s the problem. It will cost up to £10.5 billion to pay compensation to all 3.5 million women affected. This huge sum will be distributed regardless of need: Theresa May will owe thousands.
Wasps are the most amazing lounge. Politicians’ hearts break when they see them coming. Sometimes dressed as suffragettes, they appear wherever Work and Pensions ministers meet, well-armed with tales of hardship and hard truths.
Promises were made. Before the 2019 election, Jeremy Corbyn said: “We owe a moral debt to these women,” offering them £12 billion a year for five years, while Boris Johnson pledged to “commit to doing everything I can to solve this problem.” Such wild promises were making the rounds in the pre-election atmosphere, with the Resolution Foundation saying both parties would struggle to stay within their budget limits. In power, the Conservatives paid no money.
Although the compensation offer was not included in Labour’s 2024 manifesto, some Conservatives, now in apathetic opposition, have accused Labor of “betrayal”. Some Labor MPs who pledged to Dabur are threatening to revolt if it comes to a vote. Diane Abbott asked Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday: “Does the Prime Minister really understand how disappointed the Wasp women are today?” But these MPs must ask themselves what they would do if they were the DWP secretary and had £10.5bn to spend. This would push for the abolition of the two-child limit and the maximum family benefit for three years, Freeing 620 thousand children From poverty.
The maximum income eligibility for free school meals could be raised Today a shocking £7,500 For those claiming Universal Credit. on 470,000 children In England, those entitled to free school meals do not claim them. How about offering free international dinners? Benefits for families are miserably low: if only children got the same ever-escalating triple lock on benefits that older people get on pensions, which will increase by £472 a year from April.
If pensioner poverty is a priority, raise the threshold so that more are entitled to pension credit, thus paying for winter fuel and a series of other benefits. If this had actually been done, there would have been harm from canceling the payment to many who do not need it.
Sadly, the DWP does not have the £10.5bn, but if the Spring Spending Review does not find the money needed for the poorest children and the (lowest) poorest pensioners, then everything will open up on the Labor backbench, which is quite right. Let’s let the MPs keep their powder dry over the hornets, and focus any new money on the poor first. If only children had the power of wasp bearers. If all those entitled to receive benefits were pursued with the same force as benefits fraud.
Although the number of people applying for Pension Credit for the winter fuel payment has risen, About 780,000 Eligible retirees have not yet done so. Many who applied are stuck on a waiting list. With the government determined to find them, it cannot be beyond the intelligence of the Doha Action Program to check everyone who is actually receiving the basic pension.
Wasps have a better moral case than I have presented here. What they are really demanding is retroactive justice for the heinous misogyny that women have suffered for generations. Many of them left school at the age of 14 or 15 to work in strenuous jobs that negatively affected their health. Only a few had access to educational opportunities and were classified as unskilled, their skills devalued because they did “women’s work.”
Many factory workers were paid lower wages by mutual agreement between employers and unions. While researching the book, I discovered that union agreements insisted that women receive lower wages for fear they would take men’s jobs – hence the Dagenham machinery workers’ strike. Career, catering, and cashier jobs were low-paid because they were mostly done by women. There were no subsidized childcare or nursery places until the Blair/Brown era. For cheating in working life, women are entitled to receive less in retirement. Equality in retirement ages between men and women was inevitable, although the fact that it was the only financial equality imposed with an iron rod leaves a bitter aftertaste.
Wasby’s case went to court under the Conservative Party in 2019, and lost, with government lawyer James Eadie presenting a blunt legal fact: “Parliament has no substantive, self-contained obligation to justice.”
The government also does not bear a financial obligation to correct historical discrimination based on gender. But the primary duty and goal of any Labor government is to eradicate poverty here and now, starting with those who need it most. Every Labor government leaves fewer poor children and fewer poor pensioners. This is their mission. Those Wasps who are not poor are lower on the priority list: sorry, Theresa May.