A furious Aberdeen grandmother took her fight for compensation to Holyrood after Labour announced it will not pay back Waspi women.
Linda Carmichael, 71, was among campaigners at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday protesting against the UK Government’s controversial decision.
Waspi campaigners across Britain say they were not notified early enough that the pension age for women was being increased from 60 to 65.
“We never realised it would be as disappointing as this,” Linda told The Press and Journal.
“This is a real slap in the face to women of our generation who have worked hard.
“Now we’ve basically been shafted by the politicians.”
Linda says she lost out on £42,500 due to being impacted by the changes to her pension.
She retired from an accountancy firm aged 63 and worked for three years longer than planned.
The initial decision to equalise the state pension age between men and women was made by the Tories in 1995.
A timetable was put in place to ensure the shift would be gradual between 2010 and 2020.
David Cameron’s government then sped up the process and the Tories increased the state pension age to 66 four years ago.
It’s estimated paying back campaigners could cost up to £10 billion.
More than 3 million women were affected by the changes in the 1990s.
Thousands of Waspi women in Aberdeen
It’s estimated around 10,000 women are affected in Aberdeen alone.
Labour claims the majority of women were given plenty of notice.
Linda disputes this.
“I know there’s a kind of mantra going about that 90% of us knew,” she said.
“That’s just not true. We’re not stupid people.
“We’re not old dearies that you can con. We know how politics works.”
She added: “It is very fair for the pension age to be equalised.
“We do not have an issue with that. We have an issue with the lack of notice.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said he was “deeply disappointed” by his party’s “blanket” decision not to compensate campaigners.
Linda said: “We are officially apolitical as a group, but we are very disappointed with what Labour has done.”
The UK Government did acknowledge campaigners were owed an apology for the handling of the scandal.
But Linda said: “There’s number of us who have gone through difficult times either financially or emotionally.
“We’ve had an apology, but an apology doesn’t pay the bills.”
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