Waspi women compensation hopes soar as watchdog demands DWP names decision day
Waspi women have a new and powerful ally in their campaign to get compensation for moves to hike the state pension age for women. And that's bad news for the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP).
Patricia Gibson calls for debate on WASPI compensation
Waspi stands for Women Against State Pension Injustice (or Inequality, depending on the campaign group). It represents around 3.8 million women born in the 1950s were hit by moves to bring their retirement age into line with men.
Waspis have campaigned for years, claiming they weren't given enough warning of the change, which ruined hundreds of thousands of lives.
Many say they did not even know the retirement age was going to rise from 60 to 65 – and then to 66 – until months before they were due to retire.
The Waspi campaign got a real boost in July 2021, when the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) ruled that the DWP should have written individual letters to affected women 28 months before it finally sent them out.
It called this “maladministration” and it gave Waspi women hopes that they could secure compensation. They got a further boost last month when the Ombudsman said they deserved compensation and urged Parliament to take up the issue.
Compensation could range from £3,000 to £10,000, although Waspi women say they've lost as much as £50,000.
Since then, the DWP has been dragging its feet. In my view, it clearly doesn't want to pay, and is hoping to stretch out the decision in the hope that something turns up.
Or maybe today's ministers would rather leave it for Sir Keir Starmer to decide, if the Labour Party wins the next election as expected.
Earlier this month, DWP minister Mel Stride was asked when Parliament will act on compensation. He told ITV: "There'll be no undue delay in us coming forward, but I do want to have sufficient time."
Stride added: "There are very strong feelings about this on all sides of the argument as to whether compensation should be paid or not."
Anyone with even the vaguest knowledge of how Westminster works can decipher this. It means: "Leave me alone, go away, I don't want to pay Waspi women a penny but I'd rather not say because you're all hate me and there's an election coming”.
It’s a tried and tested formula and for a good reason. It works, again and again. It's called "kicking things into the long grass".
Waspi women recognise a stalling tactic when they see one.
But today they're in a better mood, judging by social media, because it appears that a government watchdog is wise to DWP strategems, and has decided to intervene.
The Rt Hon David Jones MP, acting chair of Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, has written to Mel Stride and effectively told him to get his act together.
Although he didn't use those exact words. That's me, paraphrasing.
Jones refers to the statement Stride made to the House of Commons on March 25, following the Ombudsman’s findings.
He wrote: “In the statement, you committed to providing a further update to the House of Commons once the Government has considered the PHSO report’s findings and said that it will continue to engage fully and constructively with Parliament. You also said that the Government will not ‘unduly delay our response’.”
Jones then reminds Stride that his committee has responsibility to scrutinise the Ombudsman's work. "This includes following up on reports that the PHSO lay before the House of Commons.”
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Jones then asked Stride to "write to update us about the timetable for the publication of your response to the PHSO's report".
He also demanded to know when the DWP intends to update parliament.
Jones ended the short letter with: "Such a timetable would provide reassurance and clarity to the Committee and to the PHSO.”
Naturally, it's all done in very polite terms. But the tone has an underlying menace, and the objective is clear.
Jones wants Stride to come to a decision, and soon. Then he wants him to tell us what it is.
It means he has no hiding place left.
If I was Mel Stride, this letter would make me miserable. If I was a Waspi, I’d be thrilled.
We still don't know what the DWP will decide, but we do know that it has to tell us what it is. On a set date that Stride has to name. He can't duck out any longer. Can he?
