The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign is calling for an immediate one-off compensation payment of between £11,666 and £20,000 for millions of older women across the UK, with the higher amounts going to those who were given the shortest notice of the longest increase in their State Pension age.
The WASPI campaign identified around 3.8 million women born in the 1950s suddenly found they would have to work many more years when the State Pension age was increased to 65 between 2016 and 2018 and then to 66, for both men and women across the UK in October, 2020.
In July 2021, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) ruled that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to communicate the changes with enough urgency, finding it guilty of maladministration, and is currently investigating the harm caused.
Changes to the State Pension age, which were legislated for in 1995, were not communicated through targeted letters to the affected women until 2008, leading the PHSO to find that "The opportunity that additional notice would have given them to adjust their retirement plans was lost”.
And now, WASPI has released new research which reveals that an estimated 220,190 women will have died in the seven years since the campaign started by the end of this year, without having received any compensation.
Analysis, conducted by Statista, also shows that since WASPI started campaigning, the UK Government has saved an estimated £3.8billion on compensation payouts most likely to be awarded to those affected.
WASPI spokeswoman Angela Madden said: "The [UK] Government's strategy of delaying inevitable compensation payments is a cynical attempt to time women out of what they are due.
"The Chancellor is effectively banking on the grim reaper saving him more and more money each year, leaving women struggling to pay their bills in retirement and lacking in trust in government.”
She continued: “Since the Ombudsman has already found that women born in the 1950s were mistreated, the right thing to do is to put in place a compensation package right away.
"Doing so would end the agony for millions of women who have been emotionally, physically and financially affected by mistakes made in government."
Peter Aldous MP, Co-Chair for the APPG for State Pension Inequality for Women APPG said: "It is now clear that the so-called 'WASPI' women were victims of successive UK Governments' systemic shortcomings dating from 2005, maladministration, and a failure to comply with the civil service code in their communications concerning the planned changes.
"The APPG that I co-chair has submitted evidence to the Ombudsman calling for the highest compensation level available in making its recommendations, which we feel should be paid to affected women in recognition of their suffering."
In the Commons on March 24, SNP chief whip Owen Thompson called on the UK Government to provide a timetable to “properly compensate” WASPI women.
Mr Thompson also described the Spring Statement as the Chancellor’s “leadership pitch,” and called for “meaningful support” for pensioners, those on benefits, and people on lower incomes, to address the rising cost of living, saying a crisis is “fast becoming a catastrophe for millions of families”.
He said: “It’s also nine months since the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman confirmed the WASPI women’s claim that the DWP is guilty of maladministration, yet nothing has happened.
“So could we have a debate in Government time to detail a timetable to properly compensate those women affected?”
Commons Leader Mark Spencer responded to a number of points raised by Mr Thompson, but did not directly address his comments relating to the WASPI women.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We support millions of people every year and our priority is ensuring they get the help and support to which they are entitled. The [UK] Government decided over 25 years ago that it was going to make the State Pension age the same for men and women as a long-overdue move towards gender equality.
"Both the High Court and Court of Appeal have supported the actions of the DWP, under successive governments dating back to 1995, and the Supreme Court refused the claimants permission to appeal.”
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