Waspi women are urging MPs to take action over a historic state pension “injustice” as the recommended compensation payout “is a bit on the low side”.
Angela Madden, chair of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign, appeared before the Work and Pensions Committee earlier today.
She appeared alongside Waspi campaign director Jane Cowley, chair of the APG on State Pension Inequality Rebecca Long-Bailey MP and the group’s co-chair Peter Aldous MP.
Madden called on Parliament to act following a landmark report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) earlier this year.
Thousands of women could be in line for compensation after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to adequately inform them the state pension age had changed, the PHSO found.
The ombudsman recommended that women born in the 1950s should be awarded a Level 4 compensation payout which is between £1,000 and £2,950.
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WASPI campaigners are calling on MPS to act following the PHSO’s report
GETTY / PARLIAMENT
However, this is a far cry from the £10,000 amount that campaigners had previously called for from the Government.
Furthermore, the Government has yet to put forward a compensation package in place for those affected by the historic state pension changes.
Madden explained: “We’ve never campaigned for anything other than some sort of compensation for what we saw as the failures of the DWP so we are pleased by the report.
“It identified that there was maladministration. It identified that the remedy should be compensation.
“It’s also laid the report before Parliament which we are really happy with because we feel Parliament is the right place for that decision to be made. The level suggested in the report we think is on the low side.”
The Waspi campaign chair noted that “time is not on the side” of thousands of women impacted by the DWP’s handling of the equalisation of the state pension age between men and women.
“During the course of the complaints process, 270,000 Waspi women have died without justice,” she said.
“In fact, nine Waspi women may die while having this evidence session today. One of us dies every 13 minutes so time is not on our side.”
During her appearance in front of the select committee, Madden was backed by her fellow Waspi campaigners and allies in Parliament.
Long-Bailey noted the PHSO’s report was “clear” in determining maladministration and called on MPs to come together to determine the appropriate compensation payout for those affected.
She added: “It highlighted that many women had lost opportunities to make informed decisions about their finances and their future.
“It also called on the DWP to apologise to these women. More importantly, it confirmed that there was injustice.”
