Activists from Women Against Inequality in State Pensions (Waspi) have criticized the government after being excluded from a compensation promise in the Budget.

Waspi women in northeast England accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of snubbing them when she announced help for victims of other injustices.

Christine Smith, convenor of the Newcastle, Wear and Tees Waspi group, said they were “very hopeful” that Labor would finally compensate women affected by changes to the state pension age.

Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds said Channel 5 News his party “was not going to leave this decision in the long grass.”

The Waspi women campaign for those affected by government decisions to increase the retirement age from 60 to 65 in 1995 and then to 66 in 2012.

The change has left many women without the retirement income they originally expected.

A group, including Ms Smith, gathered in Westminster during Wednesday’s budget to protest.

A report published by the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO) in March found that the Department for Work and Pensions did not adequately communicate changes to women’s state pension age.

After investigating the matter for six years, he ruled that the The affected women were owed compensation..

In his first budget, Reeves announced more than £13bn in compensation for victims of the infected blood and Post Office Horizon scandals, but made no mention of women born in the 1950s who were not adequately informed about the increases. of your state pension age. .

Mrs. Smith, a former nurse, told Local Democracy Reporting Service Waspi’s campaign “is not going to disappear” and he called for an urgent decision from ministers because “time is not on our side.”

The 70-year-old said the ordeal had caused her “distress and depression” as the women lost “everything” they worked for.

Speaking to Channel 5 News, Reynolds declined to set a timeline for a decision on compensation for the Waspi women, but acknowledged that activists “have been waiting for several years.”

She added: “I met with Waspi activists, the first minister to meet them in eight years, in early autumn.

“I have told them that I am very carefully examining the reports prepared by the Ombudsman.”

He added that the government will examine it “in some detail and give it due consideration.”