Waspi threatens government with legal action over refused compensation

The Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign group has threatened the government with legal action over its refusal to pay compensation to women impacted by changes to the state pension age. A Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) report had recommended the impacted women, who were born in the 1950s, could be owed up to £10.5 billion in total, or £2,950 each.

The campaign group has sent a “letter before action” to work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall, calling on the government to withdraw its compensation decision. If the government does not comply, the group has said it will seek a judicial review at the High Court in two weeks’ time.

The pensions row has been rumbling on for more than a decade after the government sped up changes to the state pension age under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition (2010-2015).

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Since the 1990s, the government had been planning to increase the qualifying age for women from 60 to 65 to bring it in line with men. The changes had originally been set to take place between 2010 and 2020, but the Pensions Act of 2011 brought the end date forward to 2018 to reduce the overall cost of the state pension.

Women impacted by the change argued they were given too little notice of the acceleration in policy, and that they were unable to plan adequately for retirement as a result. Last year, a review by the parliamentary ombudsman ruled in the Waspi campaign group’s favour, finding the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guilty of “maladministration”.

The ombudsman said the DWP should have written to the impacted women 28 months earlier than it actually did to notify them of the change. This would have given them some additional time to adjust their retirement plans. However, the government did not have to accept the report's recommendation of compensation.

The government has since apologised for the delay in writing to the impacted women, but said the majority were still aware of the changes through other means of communication. It also pointed to the ombudsman’s finding that the women had not suffered “direct financial loss”. As a result, the government announced in December last year that a compensation scheme could not be justified.

The decision to ignore the ombudsman’s recommendation followed weeks of comments from ministers saying that a Waspi update was imminent, raising hopes that a compensation package would soon be announced.

Speaking in the House of Commons in December, prime minister Keir Starmer said: “Ninety percent of those impacted did know about the change – and in those circumstances, the taxpayer simply can't afford the burden of tens of billions of pounds of compensation.”

What’s next for the Waspi campaign?

The government has been asked to respond to the Waspi campaign group’s “letter before action” by 10 March. The group will then seek a judicial review at the High Court.

In a statement published this week, the campaign group said: “Are we going to stand by and allow any government to ignore the findings of its own watchdog, after a six-year investigation which took evidence from both sides and looked at it from a completely neutral viewpoint?

“If there are no logical reasons for the government’s refusal to pay compensation for what the ombudsman and the government agree was maladministration by the DWP, then why should they be allowed to get away with doing so?”

A parliamentary debate is also due to take place on 17 March to discuss the issue of compensation. It comes after an online petition set up by the Waspi group attracted more than 158,000 signatures. The petition demanded the government create a compensation scheme by 21 March 2025.

The Waspi group posted on social media platform X: “This [debate] isn’t binding on the govt, but is an opportunity for all MPs to show support for compensation & upholding the [ombudsman’s] recommendations. Please write to your MP, ask them to attend and speak up for compensation for their #WASPI constituents [sic]”.

Charity Age UK has also sounded its support for the campaign group. In a statement published at the end of last year, charity director Caroline Abrahams said it wasn't “credible for the government to contradict the ombudsman's painstaking report when it comes to liability for compensation”.

She added: “Everyone understands that the public finances are under acute pressure but the government should not rub salt in the wounds of those impacted by suggesting there is no case for compensation. The fact that many of the women affected will also be coping with the loss of their Winter Fuel Payment this year will intensify their sense of injustice.”

What has the government previously said about Waspi?

There was no mention of Waspi in Labour’s manifesto, and little was said after the party’s election victory. However, ministers started speaking on the issue towards the end of last year.

Former pensions minister Emma Reynolds, who has since been replaced by Torsten Bell, said: "The ombudsman took six years to look at what are a range of complex cases, and we are looking at the complexity of those cases."

She later added: “I was the first minister for eight years to meet with the Waspi campaigners to listen to their concerns. We are working at pace on this issue. We hope to come to the house soon to update [...] the public on what we're going to do next.”

Critics of the decision not to pay compensation have pointed out that Labour ministers were supportive of the campaign in opposition. According to the Waspi campaign group, Kendall and Starmer have both previously spoken of the “injustice” that the women faced.

In 2019, Angela Rayner – now the deputy prime minister – told the BBC: “The government failed the women who were born in the 1950s. They stole their pension.”