What is a WASPI woman? What happened to them?

Back in the 1990s, a debate was brewing over state pensions.

When the benefit was introduced to everyone in 1948, men were entitled to benefits when they reached 65, but women started receiving benefits at 60.

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With more women entering the workforce and life expectancy increasing, many believe it’s time to level the playing field and bring women’s retirement age in line with men’s.

In 1995, John Major’s Conservative government introduced the Pensions Bill, setting out a timetable for reform.

The legislation says the eligibility age for the state pension will slowly increase by 10 years between 2010 and 2020.

But by 2010, when David Cameron’s coalition government came to power, there was a desire to cut spending and conserve cash.

In 2011, a new pension bill was introduced, which not only shortened the timetable for raising the pension age for women to 65 by two years, but also raised the overall pension age to 66 by October 2020, saving the government About £30 billion.

The change in the law caused strong opposition from the women affected (those born in the 1950s).

They complained that many women were not properly notified by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as early as 1995, with some receiving letters about the matter 14 years after the legislation was passed.

Others claimed they were notified only a year before they were due to retire at age 60, while many more said they had never received any notification from the department.

When the law changed again in 2011, there was again little or no notice from the government, as women once again had to replan their retirements.

In 2015, a group of women affected by this situation formed Women Against State Pension Inequality, or WASPI, to Activity represent them.

The group has no objection to plans for equal pension ages but claims millions of women are suffering financially from not having time to plan for retirement.

By October 2018, WASPI had secured a full investigation into the DWP’s conduct by the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO).

It took them five years to complete their work, but when they Report published in March 2024damn it.

The PHSO said thousands of women may have been affected by the DWP’s “failure to adequately inform them” of changes to the state pension age and ruled that compensation was “owed”.

The report recommends that compensation should be between £1,000 and £2,950 per person, based on sample cases seen by the authors.

But Ombudsman chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath said she was “very concerned” the DWP would not act on its findings and recommendations – which are not legally binding – so the PHSO had “proactively asked the council to intervene and pursue accountability” Responsibilities of the Department”.

Both the DWP and Number 10 said they would consider the ombudsman’s report and formally respond to their recommendations “in due course”.

But the Lib Dems called on the government to confirm compensation for “these brave women who have worked tirelessly to fight for justice after having their pockets plucked out”.