Who are the Waspi women, and will they get compensation over state pension changes?

Some women affected by a decision to increase the state pension age should get compensation, a long-awaited report says.

The Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman says the government failed to adequately inform women born in the 1950s about the impact of changes.

The modern state pension was introduced in 1948.

For 60 years, men who had made enough National Insurance (NI) contributions received their state pension at 65 and women at 60.

But many argued the difference was unfair because women tend to live longer than men.

Under the 1995 Pensions Act, a timetable was drawn up to make the age at which men and women start getting state pensions the same.

This meant the state pension age for women would gradually increase to 65, between 2010 and 2020.

However, in 2010, the coalition government decided to accelerate the timetable, to reduce the overall cost of the state pension.

Under the 2011 Pensions Act the new qualifying age of 65 for women was brought forward to 2018.

The qualifying age for both men and women increased to 66 in October 2020.

This is set to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and to 68 between 2044 and 2046.

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) group has lobbied the government and held protests about the pensions issue for many years.

It does not oppose the state pension age becoming the same for women and men.

Instead, it wants women to be compensated over the government’s failure to tell them – or provide adequate notice – about the changes.

About 2.6 million women were affected by the 2011 changes.

While some of them had time to adapt to a longer working life, for others the change came as a shock.

In particular, about 300,000 women born between December 1953 and October 1954, who were getting close to their state pension age when they found out, had to wait an extra 18 months.

Waspi argues this did not give women enough time to make alternative arrangements. It says many were forced to continue working, or to live on significantly less income than expected.

Waspi wants payments for those who have already reached the state retirement age, plus extra income for those still awaiting their state pension.

It has suggested some women should receive £10,000, which would cost the government £36bn.

The group estimates that at least 270,000 affected women have died during its campaign.

In its report, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) said the government had failed to adequately inform thousands of women that the state pension age had changed. 

It says “too many” didn’t understand how the change affected them, and that their complaints “weren’t adequately investigated”.

As a result the PHSO, which is responsible for investigating complaints about UK government departments, says women should be compensated.

It recommends – from the sample cases it has seen – payments of between £1,000 and £2,950. That is less than Waspi has called for.

However, it cannot enforce compensation.

The report says the DWP “has clearly indicated it will refuse to comply”.

The PHSO therefore says it is “taking the rare but necessary step of asking Parliament to intervene”.

The amount of state pension you get depends on when you were born, and the number of “qualifying years” of National Insurance contributions you have.

Those who reached state pension age before April 2016 get the old basic state pension – currently worth £156.20 a week.

Those who reached state pension age after that date get the new state pension, worth £203.85 a week.

From 6 April 2024, these will be worth £169.50 and £221.20 a week respectively.

You can use online government calculators to check how much pension you will be entitled to, and when you will be able to start taking it.