Waspi Fury Grows as UK Government Rejects Pension Compensation Again
Anger is boiling over tonight after the government once again shut the door on compensation for millions of women affected by changes to the state pension age.
Ministers have confirmed they will not pay compensation to women born in the 1950s, despite a fresh review prompted by newly uncovered evidence. For the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign, known as Waspi, this decision feels like history repeating itself and the reaction has been swift and furious.
At the heart of this dispute are changes that pushed the state pension age for women from 60 to match that of men. While the policy itself was agreed decades ago, campaigners say the problem was how it was communicated. Around 3.6 million women argue they were not properly informed, leaving many financially unprepared for years without the pension they expected to rely on.
In 2024, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found that there had been maladministration and recommended compensation of up to nearly £3,000 per person. That recommendation, however, was not binding. The government rejected it and after reconsidering the case again this week, it has reached the same conclusion.
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Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden has acknowledged that individual letters warning women about the changes could and should have been sent earlier. An apology has been repeated in Parliament. But ministers insist that most women already knew the pension age was rising and that no direct financial loss was caused by the delay in communication.
The government says a flat-rate compensation scheme could cost more than £10 billion and would be unfair, because it would also pay women who were already aware of the changes. More tailored compensation, ministers argue, would be impractical to deliver.
For Waspi campaigners, that explanation offers little comfort. They say this is not just about money, but about accountability and justice. Their chair, Angela Madden, has accused ministers of showing contempt for ordinary women and ignoring the findings of the parliamentary watchdog. Legal action is now being considered, keeping the issue very much alive.
This matters far beyond Westminster. It raises serious questions about how major policy changes are communicated, how governments respond when mistakes are identified and what recourse citizens have when official apologies come without tangible redress.
For millions of women who planned their retirement around a promise that changed without what they believe was fair warning, tonight’s decision lands as another heavy blow. The political fallout is far from over and pressure on the government is only set to intensify.
Stay with us for continuing coverage and analysis as this story develops and for the wider impact it could have on pension policy and public trust in the years ahead.
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