WASPI tell MPs that DWP are 'playing for time' on compensation worth up to £2950
07.05.2024 - 16:29
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
WASPI campaigners have told a committee of MPs that they believe the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is "playing for time" and "trying to kick the ball into the long grass" on paying millions of women money that they are owed.
The Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign has argued for years that women born in the 1950s were not properly informed about changes to the state pension age, which in 1995 equalised the age at which men and women retire. WASPI argues that many women were not properly informed about the changes, did not have time to prepare, and are owed compensation.
While the political debate over this compensation for up to 3.8 million women potentially affected by the inequality, more than 270,000 women have died without seeing a penny of the money that the UK's Health Service Ombudsman has said they were owed. The report, released in March, said: "the Department must do the right thing and it must be held to account for failure to do so."
READ MORE: DWP benefits payments could stop for 1.6 million people who fail to act
The ombudsman recommended that the most affected women be awarded between £1000 and £2950. However, the WASPI campaigners are urging MPs to increase this to around £10,000 to reflect the historic inequality.
Speaking before the Work and Pension select committee today (May 7), Salford & Eccles MP Rebecca Long-Bailey, who sits on the parliamentary group dealing with WASPI compensation, explained the report's findings to committee MPs. She said: "The report was quite clear in finding maladministration.
"It highlighted that many women had lost opportunities to make informed decisions about their finances and their future and it also called for the DWP to apologise to these