WASPI women 'threatening' Government as State Pension battle goes on

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign group has provided a fresh update regarding its ongoing dispute with the Government over compensation. The organisation maintains that women born during the 1950s were not given sufficient notice when the state pension age for women increased from 60 to 65, before rising again to 66.

Just last week, the group threatened the Government with legal proceedings after ministers ruled against making any payments to the organisation, a move which could amount to £10.3billion. This came despite a 2024 parliamentary ombudsman recommendation of compensation ranging from £1,000 to £2,950 each for those impacted.

WASPI has now confirmed that it has 'decided to instruct our lawyers to write to the government once again threatening legal action'. In a statement on Instagram, it declared: "WASPI have decided to instruct our lawyers to write to the government once again threatening legal action because we consider that decision not to compensate is based on multiple legal errors.

"Our lawyers are working on the necessary 'judicial review pre-action protocol letter' now. It will be sent in the next few days and published when it has been sent. The government will be given 14 days to respond.

"We have not made a final decision on taking legal action. In part, that is going to depend on the government's response. However, as things stand, we believe the government's position on the injustice we have suffered is just as irrational and unfair in the legal sense as it is offensive to WASPI women.

"We cannot understand why the government is so desperate to avoid taking responsibility for its maladministrative failures that it is willing to deny women's lived experience, nor why individual ministers are taking positions that are the absolute opposite to those they took when in opposition. Read the latest update on Crowdjustice here: www.crowdjustice.com/case/waspijustice."

The women argue that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to provide adequate notice that they would face several additional years before receiving their payments, throwing their retirement arrangements into chaos when they learnt of the alterations.

Campaigners maintain that 3.6 million women born in the 1950s were inadequately informed. Addressing the House of Commons, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden acknowledged that the Government accepted that 'individual letters about changes to the state pension age could have been sent earlier' and reiterated the apology delivered by his predecessor Liz Kendall.

However, he emphasised that the Government also concurred with the ombudsman's earlier conclusion that 'women did not suffer any direct financial loss from the delay'.

The Government further stated that a flat-rate compensation scheme for those affected would 'cost up to £10.3bn and would simply not be right or fair given it would be paid to the vast majority who were aware of the changes'.