What WASPI 2018 is campaigning for

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Many women born in the 1950s only found out at the last minute that they would not get their State Pension at 60 as they had always expected.

In 1995 the Government introduced a gradual increase to the State Pension Age for women from 60 to 65, but did not notify them. A further change in 2011 accelerated the rise. Some women were written to in 2009, 14 years after the first change, but letters were then stopped until 2012, and many women received no notice at all. Even those who were notified were not given sufficient time to prepare for this massive change to their retirement plans. Some 3.8 million women were affected.

For many women, the consequences of not being properly informed about this change to their State Pension Age have been permanent and irreversible. On the assumption that they would get their State Pension at 60, women changed jobs, reduced their working hours, took early retirement, moved house, promised to look after grandchildren, elderly parents or disabled family members, or agreed a divorce settlement. By the time they eventually found out that they would not receive their State Pension at 60 as they expected, it was too late.

In March 2024, after a seven-year investigation, the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published their final report into the injustice caused by the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP)’s poor communication. The report found the DWP guilty of maladministration from 2004 onwards for failing to contact 1950s-born women personally to inform them of the changes to their State Pension Age.

The PHSO recommended that the DWP should apologise to the women concerned and that they should receive compensation of between £1,000 and £2,950. He called on Parliament (not the Government) to implement these recommendations. In December 2024 Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Work & Pensions, accepted the PHSO’s finding of maladministration and offered an apology. However the Government has refused to grant compensation for the women affected. It is almost unprecedented for a government to go against a recommendation for financial redress from the Ombudsman, and it calls into question the validity of the Ombudsman’s role itself. Despite the Ombudsman’s request that the recommendations be put before Parliament, MPs have not been given the opportunity to vote on the matter.

Our fellow campaigners at Women Against State Pension Inequality Ltd have now been granted permission for a Judicial Review which will challenge the government’s refusal to provide financial redress for the women affected.

Following the final report of the Public and Health Service Ombudsman, which was published and laid before Parliament in March 2024, we are campaigning for the implementation of a scheme of fair and fast payment of compensation to 1950s women for the injustice they have suffered due to maladministration by the Department for Work and Pensions in the communication of changes to their State Pension Age.

COMPENSATION SHOULD:

1.  be simple to understand and administer, without requiring individuals to make complex claims;

2.  not be subject to income tax; 

3.  not be means-tested; 

4.  not be taken into account in the calculation of means-tested benefits.

We would favour a two-stage scheme:

1. Immediate compensation payments to all 1950s-born women on a simple sliding scale based on date of birth, using records already held by DWP.

2. Provision for additional compensation to be claimed by women who can provide evidence of direct financial loss caused by DWP maladministration.