Women Against State Pension Inequality has gone directly to the top of government, writing to Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Chancellor John Healey to ask for a meeting on compensation.
The letter, from Waspi chair Angela Madden, presses for what she describes as “fair compensation” for the 3.5 million women born in the 1950s who were caught out by the state’s failure to properly communicate that their state pension age was rising.
Madden frames the ask as fair redress delivered within whatever room the public finances allow, rather than a blank cheque.
FT Adviser reported that she also pointed to what Burnham told her directly during the Makerfield by-election campaign. Waspi was grateful, she said, for personal assurances from Burnham at the time that fixing this was something he intended to do.
She acknowledged the new prime minister has no shortage of problems in the queue ahead of this one. Her request is that he and the chancellor honour that commitment and get in a room with Waspi to work out what redress for 1950s-born women actually amounts to.
Labour backed the campaign while in opposition. Waspi’s case has already been through the parliamentary ombudsman, which ruled that the women were not adequately told about the changes to their state pension age.
