Waspi campaigners have confirmed plans to proceed with fresh legal action against the Government, renewing demands for compensation. Campaigners said Labour’s recent local election losses should serve as a warning, as Waspi women and their families represent a significant voting bloc in marginal seats.
In January, Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) was told for a second time that it would not receive compensation for the way state pension changes were communicated. It comes after a previous decision not to offer redress was reviewed after the rediscovery of a 2007 Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) evaluation, which, at the time, led officials to stop sending out automatic pension forecast letters. Waspi said in March that lawyers would raise “legal errors” with the Government and give its lawyers 14 days to respond. Angela Madden, chair of the Waspi campaign, said: “We will not be ignored and we will not give up this fight.
“The Government has had every opportunity to do the right thing for Waspi women. Instead, they have made a political choice that risks alienating voters in hundreds of marginal seats across the country.”
She said that after recent Labour local election losses, “the party now has a clear choice: listen to Waspi women and compensate them fairly, or face the consequences at the next General Election.”
In its campaign, 1950s-born Waspi women estimate that around 3.6 million women were left unprepared for changes to the state pension age in the 2010s, which equalised the pension ages for men and women. Prior to 2018, the state pension age for women was 60, while it was 65 for men.
Waspi argues that a lack of appropriate notice caused millions of people financial and emotional distress and the need to adjust their retirement plans.
In 2024, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman recommended compensation ranging from £1,000 to £2,950 for those affected. However, it could not enforce the payment, and the Government has since rejected the recommendation twice.
While it accepted that “individual letters about changes to the state pension age could have been sent earlier”, the Government argued that women “did not suffer any direct financial losses”.
A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said in March: “The Secretary of State set out the Government’s position in his oral statement to Parliament, including acceptance of maladministration and apology to the women affected.
“Our focus now is on delivering an action plan to implement lessons learned in how DWP communicates state pension matters going forward.”