WASPI women slam ministers’ (Image: Getty)
Campaigners have accused ministers of treating Waspi women with “utter contempt” by refusing to compensate them for a second time.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told the Commons on Thursday that the Government would not pay 1950s born women affected by how state pension changes had been communicated.
Angela Madden, chair of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), said: “Ministers have demonstrated their utter contempt for 1950s-born women, for Parliament and for the Parliamentary Ombudsman.
“The Government has kicked the can down the road for months, only to arrive at exactly the same conclusion it has always wanted to.
“This is a disgraceful political choice by a small group of very powerful people who have decided the harm and injustice suffered by millions of ordinary women simply does not matter.”
A report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has previously suggested compensation ranging between £1,000 and £2,950 could be appropriate for each of those affected by how state pension changes had been communicated.
But in December 2024, the Government said while it accepted the Ombudsman’s finding of maladministration and apologised for a delay in writing to 1950s-born women, a blanket compensation scheme, which could cost taxpayers up to £10.5 billion, could not be justified.
Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) have long-campaigned for redress for the way state pension changes were communicated.
In November, Mr McFadden said his department would review a previously-announced policy not to compensate the women born in the 1950s.
It came as court proceedings led to the rediscovery of a 2007 Department for Work and Pensions evaluation which had led to officials stopping sending automatic pension forecast letters out.
But Mr McFadden had offered campaigners no guarantees the review would lead to compensation being awarded.
Speaking in the Commons, Mr McFadden said: “The evidence shows that the vast majority of 1950s-born women already knew the state pension age was increasing thanks to a wide range of public information, including through leaflets, education campaigns, information in GP surgeries, on TV, radio, cinema and online.
“To specifically compensate only those women who suffered injustice would require a scheme that could reliably verify the individual circumstances of millions of women.”
The Tories took aim at Labour for supporting Waspi women while in opposition.
Helen Whately MP, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “Labour did not stumble into this position by accident. They campaigned on it, posed for the photos, signed the pledges, and told WASPI women they stood shoulder to shoulder with them.
“Keir Starmer and his frontbench used WASPI women as a political prop to win votes and moral authority. Now they are in government, WASPI women have been betrayed, like so many others that Labour promised the world to.”
She added: “It is cynical politics at its very worst.”
The Secretary of State faced a backlash in the Commons from his own backbenchers, many of describing the news as “disappointing”.
Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on State Pension Inequality for Women, said: “It is frankly wrong that the Government has once again chosen to reject compensation for the 1950s women affected by state pension age changes.
“The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman stated maladministration and injustice had occurred and they recommended compensation.
“The advice to Government was clear, and blatantly ignoring those recommendations not only undermines the authority of the Ombudsman, it sends a damaging message about how the state responds when it gets things wrong.
“Put simply, it will not right historical wrongs even when its own independent advisers tell it to.”
Unison union general secretary Andrea Egan warned the Government’s latest decision “slams the door on justice” for a generation of women who lost out “through no fault of their own”.
Dennis Reed, the director of Silver Voices, added: “This cruel decision amounts to a declaration of war on senior citizens and shows that Labour has given up all hope of regaining the trust and votes of pensioners.
“To deliberately raise the hopes of millions of older women while buying time to get their legal ducks in a row is beyond contempt. This is the latest in a line of betrayals of older people and Waspi women are encouraged to join Silver Voices to mount a general political fight back”.