A WASPI woman has won over 24,000 likes for a TikTok post slamming an increase in the state pension age that has cost her £42,000.
June Slater, one of the many campaigners for the more than 3 million women who lost out, said the move has taken billions out of their purses.
As a result, many have had to continue working despite ill health, while others have been plunged into poverty.
The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign group is demanding compensation after they lost out when the official retirement age was increased from 60 to 66.
Last month, they won support from an official report of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) which ruled there was a failure to properly notify the 3.8 million women involved.
It suggested these women might be due compensation of £1,000-£2,950, however neither the Conservatives nor Labour have made any commitment to pay up amid a squeeze on government finances.
Mrs Slater, who is also a political commentator with a number of TV appearances, let fly at the government here on TikTok.
“I should have had my pension when I was 60. I got it this year now that I am 66,” she complained.
“£42,000 is what they kept from me and 3 million others.”
Mrs Slater said delays in offering proper recognition or compensation means many of the women involved have already died.
She said: “A pension age woman from my era dies every 13 minutes. How much have they saved by delaying it?”
The initial decision to equalise the state pension age for men and women at 66 was made by former Conservative Chancellor, Kenneth Clarke, in 1995. It was then phased in between 2010 and 2018.
Subsequently, the Conservative Chancellor, George Osborne, brought forward the increase in the state pension age to 66, saying it should be implemented by 2018.
He then brought forward a further increase taking it up to the age of 67 to between 2026 and 2028, while a further rise to 68 is in the pipeline.
Mrs Slater attacked the move, saying: “George Osborne said that delaying the women’s state pension was the most lucrative move a finance minister could ever make and it dwarfs all other measures.”
She asked: “Does that sound like the sort of vocabulary from someone who cares, who is doing his best for the pensioners or for the people of this land?”
Among the thousands who responded, one said: “I got mine at 66 in November. I am tired and worn out. I worked since I was 16.”
Another wrote: “I get mine in July. I work full-time and live with heart failure. I didn’t think I would make it at times.”
A third complained: “I’m dreading when I get old. I might not even see a pension.”
A petition demanding an urgent parliamentary debate on compensation for the WASPI women has reached 200,000 signatures.
The petition was launched less than two weeks ago on Change.org by Angela Madden, the chair of WASPI.
