A significant development has emerged in the ongoing WASPI campaign, as representatives urge the Labour Party government to provide compensation for women affected by changes to the state pension age. The campaign, which represents over three million women born in the 1950s, has called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey to honour promises made to address their concerns.
Angela Madden, Chair of the WASPI campaign, emphasised the urgency of the matter in a recent interview with the Daily Mail. At 72 years old, she expressed hope that Mr Burnham is seriously considering their demands, describing him as being in “listening mode.” Madden stated, “If he can do something, he will. Us Waspis can’t be left with nothing.”
She clarified that while the Prime Minister had indicated a willingness to help, the exact form of support was yet unknown. “The Prime Minister has a golden opportunity to prove he is a man of the people if he works with us,” she added. Madden called for direct discussions between WASPI campaigners and government officials to explore viable solutions. “What we now need to do is sit around a table with Government and talk about what the options are,” she said.
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Recognising that the government may not be able to meet all their demands, Madden stressed the necessity of some form of redress for the affected women.
This campaign followed the 2024 findings by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which ruled that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had committed ‘maladministration’. The investigation found that many women were not provided with timely or adequate information regarding increases in their state pension age.
These changes were initially introduced by the 1995 Pensions Act, which raised the pension age for women from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2020. Later, the 2011 Pensions Act accelerated the increase to 65 by 2018. More recently, six years ago, the pension age for both men and women was raised to 66. The Ombudsman’s 2024 report recommended compensation for those affected by these changes.
In response, Prime Minister Burnham’s administration has acknowledged the maladministration and issued an official apology to the women impacted by the pension age alterations. The government has also stated that the DWP has learned important lessons from the Ombudsman’s investigation and has introduced a new action plan aimed at ensuring ‘effective, timely and modern communications’ regarding state pension information moving forward.