WASPI row with DWP deepens as Work and Pensions secretary slammed by own constituent
EXCLUSIVE: She was forced to continue working even after she had a stroke as her state pension age was raised.
A WASPI campaigner who lives in pension minister Mel Stride's constituency said she is "disgusted" at the Government's lack of action on the question of compensation.
Mitzi Pouncy, 69, only found out her state pension age would be going up to 65 and eventually up to 66 when she was 58, as she didn't get a letter from the DWP to notify her.
She had a major stroke when she was 63 which took her six months to recover from but she had to keep working for the next few years.
She said: "I couldn’t afford to retire. I applied for a PIP (Personal Independence Payment) so I could stay home and recuperate a bit better, but I couldn’t get that because I was upright.
"It was really, really hard. It was awful, devastating really.
"Now I’m an old age pensioner on the meanest pension in the civilised world, and the Government pleads poverty when they rifled the pension funds to the tune of £280billion."
Her MP Mel Stride was recently asked when there would be compensation and he said there would be "no undue delay" but he needed time to look at the question.
Ms Pouncy said: "I’ve written half a dozen times to Mel Stride, who happens to be my MP in this constituency that I live in.
"All I’ve got a couple of times is a bog standard round robin that he obviously sends to everybody. I’m just disgusted frankly."
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She said feels like she is "banging your head up against a wall" trying to get a response out of Mr Stride and in her other WASPI campaign efforts.
She said: "Whenever WASPI have a target campaign, I always write and do what they ask.
"I always sign petitions when they come through Facebook or WhatsApp if I believe in the cause.
"I don’t whether if I’ll be able to go to London and lie in the road any more. It’s a long way from here, it’s two and a half hours.
"At my age, I can’t do a whole day of travelling and campaigning, I’d have to stay the night and I just can’t afford it."
She was working as an administrator in an intensive care unit when she had her stroke, so fortunately she got sick pay for the time she was off, and went back working part time.
The WASPI campaigner said: "I’m grateful for every day I get because when I was 63, I really almost died. I’m so lucky to be alive.
"I have a little job that I do one or two days a week. I do a bit of dog sitting just to earn a bit more money because the pension frankly isn’t enough.
"What is even worse, my NHS pension which I put into for 10 years, it went up by £8 or £9 a month, and they taxed it. I actually pay £70 odd a month on my old age pension and my NHS pension because they didn’t raise the Personal Allowance."
She said old age pensioners should have an increased Personal Allowance of £15,000.
Ms Pouncy said many politicians seem to have an agenda against pensioners. She said: "They really have something against pensioners. I don’t know why, maybe because we’re not productive.
"But we built this country, the last 50 or 60 years it was my generation that built this country."
A recent Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report recommended compensation for the WASPI women, suggesting payouts of between £1,000 and £2,950.
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