WASPI campaigners push for fresh debate as 3 committees could raise issue

WASPI campaigners in action
-Credit:Getty


Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaigners are ramping up their calls for compensation for women born in the 1950s, with hopes of a new debate on the matter in Parliament. Angela Madden, campaign chair, said her group was "heartbroken" when the Labour Government declared in December 2024 that there would be no compensation scheme.

The contention revolves around how these women were notified about changes to their state pension age, which was raised from 60 to 65 and then to 66. Many of the millions affected claim they did not know about the change.

A previous investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) found 'maladministration' in the way the DWP communicated the change, suggesting that warning letters should have been sent out earlier. The Ombudsman proposed compensations between £1,000 and £2,950 as restitution.

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However, the Government announced last month that there would be no compensation, arguing it was an imprudent use of taxpayer money and that most of the women were aware of the change. Despite this setback, a huge number of individual MPs continue to support the campaign, with many voicing their backing during a parliamentary debate last week, vowing to keep raising the issue in Westminster.

Ms Madden said that MPs have requested a backbench business debate on the matter. As this would not be a Government-time debate, even if a vote favoured granting compensation, it would not formally change anything.

But the campaign leader remains positive, noting that the debate would give some time for the issue to get a proper airing in Parliament. She explained: "It would be in the House of Commons. All MPs would be able to have a say. It's generally three hours long, so it gives more people a chance to say what they want. All those things should put pressure on the Government."

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She also highlighted three key committees whose purview touches on the WASPI issue, including the Work and Pensions Committee, Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC), and the Women and Equalities Committee. Ms Madden noted: "The PACAC committee owns the standard of administration, and this is all about a Government department not upholding the standard of administration. So the PACAC committee has something to say about that."

Ms Madden also hinted that the Ombudsman could raise the issue again, saying: "The PHSO could choose to come back to the Government on this and make their views more formal on the committees. I don't know if they could do another small inquiry into why the DWP chose not to [carry out its recommendations] in this case, but they should be able to do something."

Karl Bannister, deputy ombudsman at the PHSO, appeared before the Work and Pensions Committee this week. He voiced some frustrations with the Government's statement for why it would not take up its recommendation of compensation, saying: "It's not helpful in our view that the Government has undermined that [the PHSO's findings] in some of the ways it's responded.

"In saying, we don't accept that some of the women didn't know, picking out some aspects of the surveys but not all the surveys of the women's knowledge. It would have been better if there had just been a straight 'we accept there was maladministration'."