Waspi women denied pension compensation for the second time

Women affected by changes to the state pension age have been curious after the ministers denied their claim for compensation for the second time. The former policy of Labour not to provide redress was reconsidered following the rediscovery of an evaluation by the Department of Work and Pensions in 2007, which at that point prompted officials to halt the dispatching of automatic pension forecast letters 

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said to the Commons that a targeted compensation programme would not be viable, and a broader flat-rate system would cost as much as £10.3 billion.

Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) has been fighting long to be compensated. It’s chairwoman, Angela Madden, called on the government to treat women born in the 1950s with complete contempt and termed the decision of a small group of highly influential individuals who have decided that the wrongs and injustices that millions of common women are exposed to do not count.

“Waspi is taking legal advice, and all options remain on the table. We stand ready to pursue every avenue in Parliament and in the courts to secure the justice that has been so shamefully denied,” Ms Madden added.

In a statement, Mr McFadden said: “The evidence shows that the vast majority of 1950s-born women already knew the state pension age was increasing thanks to a wide range of public information, including through leaflets, education campaigns, information in GP surgeries, on TV, radio, cinema and online.

“To specifically compensate only those women who suffered injustice would require a scheme that could reliably verify the individual circumstances of millions of women.”

A wider flat-rate scheme “would simply not be right or fair, given it would be paid to the vast majority who were aware of the changes,” he added.

Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on State Pension Inequality to Women, stated, “It is frankly wrong that the Government has once again chosen to reject compensation for the 1950s women affected by state pension age changes.

“The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman stated maladministration and injustice has occured, and they recommended compensation.

“The advice to the government was clear, and blatantly ignoring those recommendations not only undermines the authority of the Ombudsman, but it also sends a damaging message about how the state responds when it gets things wrong.

“Put simply, it will not right historical wrongs even when its own independent advisers tell it to.”

According to Steve Darling, “There are more than 3.6 million WASPI women across the UK who will feel this as if it were a punch in the stomach.

“They will feel utterly betrayed, and they will feel betrayed because false hope was given to them in the autumn, and so that hope has been dashed.”