The group is demanding payouts for 3.6 million women born in the 1950s who were not properly informed of pension changes first introduced in the 1990s. The changes meant women’s pensionable age was raised to be equal with men.
WASPI argues that the rule change was not communicated adequately, meaning thousands of women failed to save enough for their retirement.
In March 2024, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found that 1950s-born women had suffered “injustice” as a consequence of the DWP’s maladministration.
The ombudsman found that because the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) delayed writing to affected women about the changes to their state pension age, they had been “denied the opportunity to make informed choices and lost a sense of personal autonomy and financial control”.
The ombudsman recommended that the affected women should receive £10bn compensation. But although the Government admits that the changes were not communicated quickly enough, it has refused to pay compensation.
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WASPI has now sent a letter before action to the DWP, asking ministers to reconsider the decision not to pay compensation as suggested by the ombudsman.
WASPI has set up a crowdfunding campaign on CrowdJustice.com, with the aim of raising £75,000 by 26 March 2025.
A statement on the group’s website said: “As with all the legal activity we have undertaken so far, it is up to our members and supporters whether we continue. If you fund this legal action, we take that as your permission for us to carry on. If not, then that sends a clear message to us, and we will not proceed.
“Are we going to stand by and allow any Government to ignore the findings of its own watchdog, after a six-year investigation [that] 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. Will we tolerate this?
“Our fight isn’t only for WASPI women it seems; it’s for all women, and it’s for integrity, fairness and justice.”
