Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaigners have been given another update about a potential payout worth nearly £3,000 by the new Labour Government.
Pensions minister Emma Reynolds MP confirmed she reviewing a landmark report on state pension age changes that could see millions of women receive compensation.
This update is in response to a question from Labour MP Ian Byrne on behalf of the millions who are believed to have been impacted.
He has called on the Government to establish a compensation scheme for affected women by February 2025.
Byrne asked the Government minister: “To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman entitled Women’s state pension age: our findings on injustice and associated issues, published on 21 March 2024, HC 638, if she will establish a compensation scheme for affected women by February 5, 2025.”
Reynolds revealed she has become the first government minister in eight years to meet with representatives from the Waspi campaign.
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Waspi campaigners have been given another update as to the state of a compensation package
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“We are reviewing the Ombudsman’s report along with the evidence provided during the investigation,” Reynolds said.
The minister added that the government needs to consider “views that have been expressed on all sides” before outlining its approach.
The statement comes after the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) determined earlier this year that women born in the 1950s could be entitled to compensation payments of between £1,000 and £2,750.
These potential payouts follow findings that the Department for Work and Pensions mishandled changes to the state pension age for women.
The PHSO’s report, published in March 2024, found the Department for Work and Pensions guilty of “maladministration” in how it managed the equalisation of state pension ages between men and women.
These findings came after an initial report in 2021 which first identified serious failings in how the DWP handled the changes.
The pensions minister has not yet committed to a specific timeline, stating only that the government will outline its approach after completing its review.
The Waspi campaign has long argued that women were not given adequate notice of the changes to their retirement age.
Around 3.8 million women are believed to have been affected by the state pension age changes. Many of these women were unable to properly prepare for their retirement due to the lack of adequate information about the changes.
Angela Madden, chair of the Waspi campaign, said: “Millions of women’s retirement plans were thrown into chaos, many suffering extreme financial and mental hardships and this is why we are here today.
“Affected women have been vindicated by the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report, parliament must compensate all affected women, yet months on we’re yet to receive an official response from the Labour party.
“With one affected woman dying every 13 minutes, we cannot continue to be patient. There are hundreds of MPs from across the House backing fair and fast compensation, now Ministers must deliver.”
