The chancellor campaigned for Waspi women to receive compensation when she was shadow pensions minister – and revealed that her own mother was affected by changes to the pension age.
Rachel Reeves spoke in a Westminster Hall debate in 2016 in which she said the women hit by the increase to the state pension age from 60 to 65 in the 2010s had been “done an injustice”.
The Leeds West MP even proposed her own solution to the issue, arguing in favour of restoring the qualifying age for pension credit to the 2011 timetable for women’s state pension age, “thus providing at least some buffer for those who are least able to cope financially with this unfair move”.
It comes after the government was accused of betrayal over its decision not to compensate millions of Women Against State Pension Inequality born in the 1950s – known as Waspi women – who say they were not given sufficient warning that the state pension age was rising from 60 to 65.
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The change was due to be phased in over 10 years from 2010, but in 2011 the process was sped up for a new deadline of 2018. The pension age then rose to 66 in 2020.
The government said that because an ombudsman found 90% of affected women knew about the changes, there was no need to compensate them at the cost of an estimated £10.5bn – with Sir Keir telling Prime Minister’s Questions: “The taxpayers simply can’t afford the burden.”
Ms Reeves, who served as shadow pensions minister from 2010-2011 under Ed Miliband also stood firm behind the government decision – despite a picture emerging of her campaigning alongside Waspi women in 2020.
She said that while she understood that Waspi women would be “disappointed by the decision”, she had to “account for every penny of taxpayers’ money spent”.
“Given the vast majority of people knew these changes were coming, I didn’t judge that it was the best use of taxpayers’ money to pay an…
