Waspi campaigners are to launch fresh legal action against the government, after it twice rejected claims they are due compensation for failing to communicate changes to the state pension age.
Who are the Waspi women?
The Women Against State Pension Inequality (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 claims 3.6 million women now in their late 60s and early 70s were given inadequate or no notice of a rise in the state pension age that brought them into line with men.
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They insist the age alteration was implemented with “too little notice”, said MoneyWeek, consequently leaving many “unable to plan adequately for retirement”.
What has happened?
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.
In December 2024, the government accepted the verdict, but “dismissed the recommendation of compensation”. Though Labour accepted historic miscommunication about state pension changes while in opposition, it later concluded “taxpayer-funded compensation could not be justified”.
The government again rejected the group’s calls for compensation in January this year, coming to the same conclusion as in December 2024, following a review.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden expressed the government’s agreement with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman that women “did not suffer any direct financial loss from the delay”.
The decision prompted around 100 MPs to sign a letter to the government, urging it to “urgently” compensate 1950s-born women who say they have “suffered a clear injustice” regarding their state pension, said The National.
What next for Waspi women?
Announcing that the group had raised new “legal errors” with the government, Angela Madden, chair of the Waspi group, has warned it could cost Labour at the ballot box.
“The government has had every opportunity to do the right thing for Waspi women,” she told The Independent. “Instead, they have made a political choice that risks alienating voters in hundreds of marginal seats across the country.”
In the wake of devastating Labour local election losses, she said “the party now has a clear choice: listen to Waspi women and compensate them fairly, or face the consequences at the next general election.
“We will not be ignored, and we will not give up this fight.”
