A campaign group threatened the government of legal action unless it reconsiders its decision to refuse compensation to millions of women affected by an increase in state retirement age.
The group of women against retirement inequalities (WASPI) requires payments for 3.6 million women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed of the changes introduced for the first time in the 1990s.
The government has apologized that the changes were not communicated quickly enough, but told the BBC that it “could not justify paying for a remuneration regime of 10.5 billion pounds Sterling to the detriment of the taxpayer “.
Waspi president Angela Madden said: “We think it’s not just outrage but legally false.”
The “letter before the action” which was sent to the government is an official mechanism to enable it to respond before the activists requested a legal examination at the high court in two weeks.
Last year, the parliamentary mediator recommended payments up to £ 2,950 each due to a period of 28 months in writing to inform the women affected by changes.
Waspi activists said women had suffered financial difficulties and had to rethink the retirement plans.
However, in December, the Secretary of Works and Pensions, Liz Kendall, apologized for delayed communications, but said that there was “considerable awareness” to the modifications made to the retirement age. She said that sending letters earlier would not have made a difference in their ability to make retirement choices.
His request that there was no direct financial loss could now be examined in court if activists obtain the approval of their judicial examination.
Ms. Madden said: “The government accepted that women born from the 1950s are victims of a bad administration, but now that none of us has suffered injustice.”
Without upcoming compensation, she said: “The alternative is a continuous defense of the indefensible but this time before a judge.”
The WasPI group has also launched a crowdfunding campaign to try to cover around £ 75,000 of legal costs.
If women were to win, it could cost the government up to 10.5 billion pounds sterling.
Government finances already under pressure due to low economic growth and higher borrowing costs, Sir Keir Starmer said that “the taxpayer could simply not afford the burden”.
The changes were first decided in 1995 when the conservative government of the time sought to equalize the age at which men and women received their state pensions, aimed at that in 2020, everyone should wait Their 65th anniversary.
However, following the global financial crisis in 2010, the conservative-Lib DEM coalition decided to accelerate changes, in order to reduce the overall cost of the state pension.
Other countries have made similar decisions in recent years, but the British government has not communicated its change quickly enough and the impact of this could now be examined in court.
A government spokesman told the BBC on Sunday that he had accepted the conclusion of the poor administration by the mediator and had apologized for the 28-month delay in writing to women born from the 1950s.
“However, the evidence showed only one in four person remembers having read and receiving letters that they did not expect and that in 2006, 90% of women born from the 1950s knew that age state retirement changed.
“Previous letters would not have affected this.”
