Waspi campaigners urge vote in Parliament on compensation

The Government said last week that women affected by the way state pension changes were communicated will not receive compensation.

Waspi chairwoman Angela Madden said all MPs should be able to ‘have their say’ with a binding vote on compensation for women affected by the way state pension changes were communicated (Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Archive)

Campaigners are calling for a vote in Parliament on compensating Waspi women, after those affected by the way changes to the state pension age were communicated were told for the second time that they will not receive payments.

A new letter campaign led by Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) is pressing the Government to enable all MPs to “have their say”.

Campaigners are urging people to contact their MP.

Last week, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat 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.”

He said a wider flat-rate scheme “would simply not be right or fair”, and 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 previous government decision not to offer redress was reviewed after the rediscovery of a 2007 Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) evaluation, which at the time led to officials stopping sending out automatic pension forecast letters.

Angela Madden, chairwoman of Waspi, said: “There must be a binding vote on compensation in Government time so all our elected representatives can have their say.”