Women demanding compensation for not being told about changes to the state pension age were dealt a major blow in Rachel Reeves’ Budget on Wednesday.

The chancellor has announced a series of generous compensation packages worth more than £13 billion for victims of the infected blood and postmasters scandal.

However, the 3.6 million Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) were not mentioned – despite Labor previously promising to right the “historic injustice” they faced.

Thousands of people demonstrated outside Parliament on Wednesday as Ms Reeves addressed the House of Commons.

State pension legislation introduced in 1995 saw the retirement age rise from 60 in 2010 to 65 in 2015. But women affected said these changes were not effectively communicated to them – leaving their retirement plans in tatters.

A landmark report by the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Health Service in March recommended compensation between £1,000 and £2,995 for victims – which ministers have so far not committed to.

Angela Madden, chair of campaign group Waspi, said: “The women affected have been vindicated by the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report. Parliament must compensate all the women affected, yet months later I have yet to receive an official response from the Labor Party.”

Sir Ed Davey MP, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: “In the absence of a compensation commitment from the Chancellor today, ministers must urgently implement the findings of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report without delay.”

270,000 affected women are believed to have died, with campaigners claiming a woman eligible for compensation dies every 13 minutes.

Dee Kearney, a female Waspi who has been suffering from poor health for the past few months, said she was “disgusted” with the way her colleagues had been treated by successive governments.

She said the changes had cost her around £57,000 in state pension payments, based on the latest calculations, adding: “It has ruined our lives.”

Ms Kearney said: “I am so disgusted with the way successive governments have treated decent women. Once we’re past working age, we’re worthless and I feel like they’re quite happy to let us die.”

Ms Reeves pledged on Wednesday to set aside £11.8bn for victims of the tainted blood scandal – described as the “worst treatment disaster in the NHS”.

Between 1970 and 1991, up to 30,000 people are believed to have been infected with HIV and hepatitis C after being treated with contaminated blood in state hospitals. More than 3,000 people died.

A further £1.8 billion has been set aside for sub-postmasters who were wrongly convicted of theft because of errors with the Post Office’s Horizon software.

An inquiry will also be conducted into the loan tax scandal, which saw contractors wrongly advised about a tax scheme, the chancellor announced. It has been linked to at least 10 suicides.

Ms Reeves said the packages were “long overdue for the pain and injustice they have suffered”.

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