WASPI calls for State Pension compensation plan within 100 days of new Government

Campaigners for women affected by changes to the State Pension age are demanding a compensation plan within 100 days of the next Government being formed. Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) says it is expecting proposals to be brought forward in the autumn after the General Election result.

Angela Madden, chair of the WASPI campaign, had told the i newspaper: "The solution needs to be started within the first 100 days of the new Government. We will be making a fuss." Labour's Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed he will take on the issue which has been "kicked into the long grass" by the Tories, while Rishi Sunak said the Conservatives were still examining the ombudsman's report.

Ms Madden added: "As the clock ticks down to the polls opening, Labour and Conservatives are in the final hour to win over the votes of 3.6 million women. We are grateful to the many candidates in all parties who have responded positively, but a new government needs to move from warm words to concrete actions. With one WASPI woman dying every 13 minutes, we will be using our votes to demand justice for all those who have been so badly let down."

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She added: "With a Labour government likely, they need to know that compensation for WASPI women is not an issue that’s going away. Before the general election, momentum was with us. The Parliamentary Ombudsman and the cross-party Work and Pensions Select Committee had vindicated our campaign. Dozens of MPs in all parties supported us in a parliamentary debate about the ombudsman's conclusions.

"After election day is over, we'll be campaigning to put WASPI right back at the top of the in-tray of a new Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. And our voice will be much more powerful if it's clear WASPI women have been out to vote in numbers."

A report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) suggested that compensation at level four, ranging between £1,000 and £2,950, could be appropriate for each of those affected. The ombudsman ruled that the Department for Work and Pensions was guilty of 'maladministration' in not giving the women enough notification of the changes to their pension age.

The changes at the heart of the complaints arose from the 1995 Conservative Government's State Pension Act, which increased the State Pension age for women from 60 to 65 so that it was the same as that for men, and the 2011 Pension Act, which put up the State Pension age further to 66 for both sexes. In all, 3.8 million women born in the 1950s - on or after April 6, 1950 to April 5, 1960 - have been affected.

WASPI says many women only received a letter advising them of increases to their retirement age within a year of the date they were originally due to claim their pension. Many others received only two, three, four or five years' notice.

It pointed out: "Women were given as little as one year's notice of up to a six-year increase to their State Pension age, compared to men who received six years' notice of a one-year rise to their State Pension age. Many women report receiving no letter ever and others say letters were sent to the wrong address despite notifying the DWP of the address change."

A State Pension Age (Compensation) Bill had been put forward to require the Government to agree to a compensation scheme, with five payment categories based on dates of birth. Some of the women would be in line for compensation of £10,000 or more under the proposed package in the private member's bill. However, it had not become legislation when the General Election was announced and so was set aside because of Parliament being dissolved.

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