Waspi women to have state pension changes decision reviewed by government

Women born in the 1950s who missed out on state pension payments may end up receiving compensation, after a government “about turn”, said The Telegraph.

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) group claimed 3.6 million women now in their late 60s and early 70s were given inadequate or no notice concerning a rise in the state pension age that brought them into line with men.

Initially, Labour accepted historic miscommunication about state pension changes while in opposition, but later concluded “taxpayer-funded compensation could not be justified”.

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But nearly a year on, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said the government would “retake” its previous decision to reject a recommendation from the ombudsman to issue payments “of up to £2,950 per woman affected”.

Who are the Waspi women?

The Waspi campaign is “fighting for justice for all women born in the 1950s” who were affected by changes to the women’s state pension age, which increased from 60 to 68 between 2010 and 2018 to align with men’s state pension age.

The group insists the age alteration was implemented with “too little notice”, said MoneyWeek, consequently leaving many “unable to plan adequately for retirement”.

Women affected by the state pension decision took their complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and were told the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) did not adequately inform thousands of women that their state pension age had changed.

The result was that women “lost opportunities” to make informed decisions about their retirement, impacting their “personal autonomy and financial control”, the report stated.

Ultimately, the review by the ombudsman, published in March 2024, ruled in favour of the Waspi women, deeming that the DWP was guilty of “maladministration”. It recommended payments of between £1,000 and £2,950 to the affected women, which would “put the total bill at up to £10.5 billion”, said The i Paper.

Last December, the government accepted the verdict, but “dismissed the recommendation of compensation”.

Waspi estimates that almost four million women were affected by the changes. Many of them claim they “had no idea” they would need to wait longer to receive their state pension, and “suffered financial and emotional distress as a result”, said the BBC. Some women claimed they received no notice at all.

Why is the matter being reconsidered?

McFadden confirmed the government would re-examine the issue as additional “evidence” not presented to his predecessor, Liz Kendall, had since “come to light”, said The Independent.

Ongoing court proceedings led to the “rediscovery” of what is considered an important document from 2007. Derived from a Department for Work and Pensions evaluation, it “led to a halt in automatic pension forecast letters being sent out”.

The evidence is “undisclosed”, said the BBC, but the government has confirmed additional checks would be made to ensure further documentation “had not been missed”. As of yet, there is “no timescale” by which the work has to be completed.

What next for Waspi women?

Despite the decision being reconsidered by the government, McFadden cautioned it would not necessarily result in compensation for the women impacted.

For affected women, however, the government’s move has been welcomed, with the chair of the Waspi group, Angela Madden, describing it as a “major step forward”.

However, the review may serve only to “reinforce the government position”, with no “change in outcome”, a senior government source told The i Paper. Other experts have also suggested the government is “unlikely to change its mind”, with Tom Selby, public policy director at investment platform AJ Bell, telling the newspaper that Labour merely “felt the need to go through due process” to avoid a drawn-out “court battle”.

Waspi’s legal fight against the government is also likely to continue, despite the most recent developments. The group raised more than £250,000 to fund its legal challenge, while also securing a costs-capping order in June.

Posting on its website, the group said they had instructed their lawyers to “press on with their preparations as before”, but would wait to see what the government chooses to “accept” based on new evidence.