WASPI is the common name for Women Against State Pension Inequality, and the group campaigns against what it believes is unfair changes to the state pension age. The group states some 3.8 million women born in the 1950s were adversely affected by the decision to lift their state pension age to bring it in line with men.
While the group is not against a state pension age increase, they believe they were not provided with ample notice and have faced economic and social consequences as a result.
Now, in the group’s next steps, it has launched a Crowdjustice appeal to fund a judicial review in the High Court against the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).
In July 2021, the PHSO found the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was “inadequate” in its communication of female state pension age changes.
The investigation is still ongoing, with stage two of the process completed and closed in December 2022.
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The 2021 report stated the affected women “should have had at least 28 months’ more notice of the changes”.
However, WASPI is set to make a new legal claim, laying out a series of arguments.
The campaign group cites the Ombudsman’s first report which concluded clear letters about state pension age changes should have been sent to affected women from December 2006.
If this had happened, most affected women would have known about the changes by 2009, the group added.
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However, WASPI stated the Ombudsman “appears to believe” most women would have not received the letters until much later – and argue this would have been “too late” for most to make different decisions about their retirement.
The campaign group has therefore argued the Ombudsman is “mistaken” about the impact maladministration had on WASPI women.
Angela Madden, WASPI Campaign Chair, said: “Millions of women have been waiting years for justice and the latest findings from the Ombudsman have left us feeling insulted and ignored.
“Now we have to fight back so we are urging people to donate whatever they can to our legal fund.
“The money is ringfenced for use to defend ourselves against the Ombudsman’s mistakes and put them right so his investigation can be concluded on a proper footing. Every penny will take us a step closer to justice for 1950s-born women.”
The investigation by the PHSO has not yet reached a final conclusion, and 1950s-born women will have to wait for the recommendation on any potential remedy.
A PHSO spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “We are now considering what action DWP should take to put right the injustice we have found. We have shared provisional views with complainants, their MPs and DWP. Once we have considered further evidence we will publish a full report on our findings.”
A DWP spokesperson previously told Express.co.uk: “The Government decided over 25 years ago that it was going to make the state pension age the same for men and women as a long-overdue move towards gender equality.”
“Both the High Court and Court of Appeal have supported the actions of the DWP, under successive governments dating back to 1995, and the Supreme Court refused the claimants permission to appeal.”
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