Will Wednesday’s Budget provide a glimmer of hope for those 3.5 million women born in the 1950s who were given inadequate notice of increases to their state pension age, leaving them worse off and little time to plug the hole in their finances?
Probably not, given the parlous state of the Government’s finances (£3 trillion of debt and rising by the second) plus the fragile state of the economy (inflation on the march and energy bills rocketing).
But Prime Minister Andy Burnham owes it to those women affected to come clean sooner rather than later on whether he is going to pay them the compensation he has long said they deserve – or callously abandon them as his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer did.
After all, time is not on their side as the website of Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) highlights rather poignantly.
Since 2015, more than 432,000 Waspi women have gone to their grave without the compensation that all bar the political elite and a minority of the public believe they deserve. Along with other splendid women’s campaigning groups, Waspi has been fighting for financial justice for the past 11 years.
Since 2015, more than 432,000 Waspi women have gone to their grave without the compensation they deserve. Pictured: Waspi women protest in 2019
‘Andy Burnham owes it to those women affected to come clean sooner rather than later on whether he is going to pay them compensation,’ writes JEFF PRESTRIDGE
It argues with great merit that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to communicate effectively the state pension age increases that women born in the 1950s faced from 2010. First in steps from age 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2020, then foreshortened to 2018, with their state pension jumping again to age 66 in 2020.
The lack of proper warning prompted the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to investigate. In 2021 it sided with campaigners, finding the DWP guilty of ‘maladministration’ for failing to give many of the affected women adequate and timely information about their state pension age being pushed back.
This resulted in many not understanding the impact of the changes until it was too late to do anything to mitigate the delay. For those dependent upon the state pension for most of their retirement income – single women especially – the financial impact was devastating.
In 2024, the Ombudsman followed up its report by recommending the compensation that should be paid: ranging from £3.5 billion (£1,000 per individual) to in excess of £10 billion.
Waspi – and other women’s campaigning groups – sensed victory. Yet Labour, who had vociferously backed Waspi in Opposition, betrayed them.
In late 2024, it rejected the Ombudsman’s recommendations with the then Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall stating compensation did not represent a ‘fair or proportionate use of taxpayers’ money’.
She also argued that most women knew about the state pension age changes despite DWP delays in sending out information.
Ahead of becoming PM, Burnham reiterated his belief that these women deserved ‘some recompense for the unfairness’ done to them.
He also said he was uncomfortable with Labour backing them in Opposition only to change tack when voted into power.
There is little hope Chancellor John Healey’s Budget on Wednesday will provide a glimmer of hope for those 3.5 million women born in the 1950s
But a spokesman for the Prime Minister soon deflated the hopes of women by indicating that any compensation would not be financial, but more based around the offer of benefits such as concessionary travel (which all women born in the 1950s would already be receiving). Since then, the PM has gone radio silent.
Just under two months ago, Waspi chairwoman Angela Madden told me she believed Burnham was in listening mode. ‘If he can do something, he will,’ she added.
I hope she’s right. Women email me every week on the injustice perpetrated against them by their state pension age being pushed back without adequate notice.
Carole Dawson, 71, a widow from near Skipton in North Yorkshire, says: ‘I am disgusted and feel victimised by the Government’s refusal to pay compensation. My state pension was pushed back six years. I lost thousands of pounds.
‘When Keir Starmer entered No10, he talked about trust, fairness and integrity. But none of that has come our way. Burnham should do the right thing and pay us fair compensation.’
Absolutely. It’s time for Burnham to tell us what he is ACTUALLY going – or not going – to do. It’s the least Carole, Angela and 3.5 million other women deserve.