The campaigners have been battling for years to get DWP compensation
Campaigners fighting for compensation for millions of women are returning to Westminster for a crucial meeting. WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) claims women were unfairly treated as a result of rapid increases to the State Pension Age.
In December 2024, ministers told Parliament there would be no payouts for the millions of 1950s-born women championed by WASPI and other campaign groups. Yet hope has been reignited after the DWP made a U-turn in December 2025, scrapping its earlier stance and pledging to deliver a fresh decision. The Government said it would need a second look at the matter as new evidence had to be considered.
While campaigners hold their breath for the Government’s fresh verdict, DWP officials will be grilled by the Work and Pensions Committee this week (January 21). The committee is hauling the department over the coals after the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) – the Government’s watchdog – raised “serious concerns” about the department’s failure to act on the WASPI matter.
WASPI champions women born during the 1950s who saw their state pension age jump from 60 to 65, and subsequently to 66. The group argues the DWP failed to provide adequate warning about the shift, leaving countless women in the dark until it was too late, ruining their retirement plans.
The Ombudsman previously investigated the issue, finding that there was ‘maladministration’ by the DWP, as letters should have been dispatched to the affected women far earlier. When ministers rejected compensation in 2024, they did acknowledge the Ombudsman’s finding of maladministration.
Labour vowed before Parliament to collaborate with the DWP to create a “detailed action plan” to ensure lessons were taken to heart from the fiasco. Yet more than 12 months on, the Ombudsman says there has been little progress on this.
The Work and Pensions Committee will now demand answers on this from the DWP. Paula Sussex, ombudsman and chair, expressed her frustration in an earlier letter to the Work and Pensions Committee.
‘Significant delays’
She said: “I have serious concerns about the significant delays in the implementation of the actions that DWP committed to undertake and the communication with my Office in relation to the state pension age investigation.”
The letter goes on to state: “Taking action to address these acknowledged failings should not be dependent on any decision about financial compensation. I am very concerned that stopping this work indicates that DWP is deprioritising the need for remedial action. It is certainly a disservice to the department’s service users and complainants.”
WASPI campaign chair Angela Madden said that representatives from the campaign will be observing the committee meeting. She commented: “I think it’s helpful that the DWP know that we are still there and that we’re still interested in everything that they do.
“We are fighting for compensation but we also want them to improve. We really want all of the Ombudsman’s recommendations to be implemented including better communications for all people affected by the DWP’s work.”
When asked whether the committee meeting might help add some pressure on the Government to finally deliver compensation, Ms Madden said: “This is the way Parliament hold the Government to account, through these meetings.
“I don’t know if it can direct the work of the DWP, because that’s up to Pat McFadden [Secretary of State for Work and Pensions], but they can perhaps give them strong suggestions about what they feel they should be doing.”
A former version of the Work and Pensions Committee, under the previous Conservative Government, did urge the Government to outline plans for compensation in May 2024. However, this proposal didn’t progress as the committee was dissolved shortly after, when the General Election was called.
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