WASPI campaign clarifies next steps after compensation decision

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign has said its next steps are to seek fresh legal advice following the UK Government's announcement earlier this week that it will not adhere to compensation recommendations made by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). Back in March the PHSO said payments should be made to women born in the 1950s who were affected by changes to their State Pension age.

WASPI campaigners have accused the Prime Minister of disseminating "dangerous misinformation" in his defence of how the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) communicated retirement age changes to approximately 3.5 million women across the UK.

During Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer informed MPs that "ninety per cent of women were aware of the changes", a statement which campaigners have labelled as "misleading" and a distortion of the facts. Angela Madden, Chair of the WASPI campaign, stated: "This isn't just misleading. It's an insult to millions of 1950s-born women who were blindsided by these changes. The Ombudsman's findings were based on rigorous evidence showing that 60 per cent of women had no idea their own State Pension age was rising."

"The Government's attempt to cherry-pick data to suggest otherwise is spreading dangerous misinformation, plain and simple."

Ms Madden added: "The fact that 90 per cent of women had some general awareness of potential changes in the future does not mean they knew this would impact them personally."

"That is exactly why the Ombudsman identified maladministration and why this Government's continued attempts to muddy the waters are so unacceptable", reports the Daily Record.

After a six-year investigation, the Ombudsman concluded in