Ex-PM Theresa May in line for 22k handout under Labour plans to pay 58billion to help WASPI women

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FORMER Prime Minister Theresa May is in line for a 21,910 handout under Labour plans to pay 58billion to women pensioners.

She would be among tens of thousands of middle-class women who could cash in under Jeremy Corbyns plans to help so-called WASPIs.

Theresa May would be among the tens of thousands of female pensioners who will receive a handout under Jeremy Corbyn’s plans

Labour is promising to spend the cash as it tries to win the support of 3.7million women voters born in the 1950s and hit by a change in state pension age from 60 to 65.

Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have plucked billions to pay the women cash up to 31,300.

One of those who will benefit is the former PM who would cash in with the lump sum payment of 21,910 according to Labours own Waspi calculator.

Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, hit out at the proposals as most of the beneficiaries are middle-class and well off.

‘BENEFIT WELL OFF’

Speaking on BBC Radio 4s Today Programme, Mr Johnson said: It breaks the promises they made in their manifesto last week only to borrow to invest.

So, they would need even more than their 80 billion tax rises if they wanted to cover that.

Theres so much money for so many things but theyre not finding money, for example, to reverse the welfare cuts for genuinely poor people.

While some of these WASPIs have suffered hardship, many of them are actually quite well off.

The WASPIs Women Against State Pension Inequality argue they were not given enough time to prepare for the changes.

Women expecting to retire at 60 were told they would have to wait longer when changes to the state pension age were accelerated in 2010.

In 2018, the retirement age for women rose to 65, in line with men.

Jeremy Corbyn plans to splash a huge sum on the 3.7 million female voters born in the 1950s to get their vote

They lost a court case against the government earlier this year.

Mr Corbyn met a group of WASPI women in Renishaw, north-east Derbyshire, and told them he was proud of the policy.

He said: We owe a moral debt to these women. They were misled.

The women Ive been talking to lost between 30,000 and 50,000 each because of this.

They are dedicated people to their communities and their families, and theyre very angry about the way theyve been treated.

The Resolution Foundation said Labour is prioritisingthe Waspi women over working family bynot using the cash to stop benefit freezes..

Labour have not pledged to stop a 5bn benefits freeze, which will see a working family 150 per year worse off and a single parent 600 worse off.

Laura Gardiner, Research Director at the Resolution Foundation, said: While the Labour Partys proposed welfare reforms will bring financial gains to many groups, including private renters and disabled people, these reforms alone will not be enough to reverse the enduring impact of the 5 billion benefits freeze.

Working couples with children and working single parents would still, on average, be worse-off under Labour compared to the pre-2015 system showing that even the most ambitious manifesto policies wont completely eradicate the effects of austerity.