Women Against State Pension Inequality has sent a letter before action to the work and pensions secretary, asking her to rethink the decision not to pay compensation to 1950s-born women. The government has 14 days to respond.

Waspi is crowdfunding £75,000 for potential legal action to reach a £180,000 target, having raised more than £160,000 in this way in the past. 

The campaign group’s lawyers argue that the government’s reasons for rejecting the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman recommendation to compensate women for maladministration are a breach of legal principles. Waspi said that “to ignore the PHSO sets a dangerous precedent” as the ombudsman is there to provide independent checks and balances on government.

The PHSO, following a six-year investigation, recommended in March 2024 that women affected by the poor communication of a rise in the state pension age should receive ‘level 4’ compensation on its scale, at the time of the report being £1,000 to £2,950. Level 4 has since increased to £1,250 to £3,700.

Just before Christmas last year, Liz Kendall rejected the recommendation despite accepting there had been maladministration. She justified this with the high cost and claiming that most women knew their state pension age was increasing. The deputy ombudsman has since told MPs that this contradicts the DWP’s own assessment at the time.

Waspi chair Angela Madden spoke of gaslighting: “We will not allow the DWP’s gaslighting of Waspi women to go unchallenged. The government has accepted that 1950s-born women are victims of maladministration, but it now says none of us suffered any injustice. We believe this is not only an outrage but legally wrong.”

“Ministers refuse to listen to their own MPs, and as such we are forced – once again – to take to the courts to obtain justice. We have been successful before and we are confident we will be again,” she said. “But what would be better for everyone is if the secretary of state now saw sense and came to the table to sort out a compensation package.”

The group previously took court action to make PHSO revisit its initial findings.

A government spokesperson said: “We accept the ombudsman’s finding of maladministration and have apologised for there being a 28-month delay in writing to 1950s-born women. However, evidence showed only one in four people remember reading and receiving letters that they weren’t expecting and that by 2006, 90% of 1950s-born women knew that the State Pension age was changing. Earlier letters wouldn’t have affected this.” 

 

The spokesperson added: “For these and other reasons the government cannot justify paying for a £10.5bn compensation scheme at the expense of the taxpayer.” 

 

The DWP will consider any matters raised in legal proceedings but stressed the PHSO did not find the department’s delays in communication caused direct financial loss. It continues to maintain that 90% of women knew about the changes.

In her statement in December, Kendall committed to the DWP learning lessons from the maladministration, though no specifics have been revealed.

Last month, SNP MP Stephen Flynn introduced a private member’s bill to parliament to compensate 1950s-born women for the government’s maladministration. The bill will be debated on 7 March. In his speech, Flynn highlighted that before the general election, many current members of the government had falsely suggested they would support Waspi.

A survey commissioned by the campaigners found in January that among 2,000 members of the public, three-quarters would support compensation for Waspi women. Similar proportions said MPs should be given a vote on the matter and the government should always accept the findings of ombudsmen.