Achi news desk-
The Waspi girls have been making headlines this week – but who are they and what are they campaigning for?
What does Waspi mean?
It stands for Women Against State Pension Inequality.
What does he do?
The group represents women born in the 1950s who have been affected by an increase in their retirement age.
They want fairer retirement payments after changes to the state pension age, meant to equalize it across the sexes, meant they lost out.
The state pension age for women was increased from 60 to 65 so it was equal to the age of men between 2010 and 2018.
The state pension age for men and women was changed to 66 in 2020, and is expected to rise again from 66 to 67 between 2026 and 2028.
So Waspi has campaigned for compensation from the government, claiming they were not given enough information about the change – some were left struggling to pay bills, others working due to ill health.
According to Waspi, more than a quarter of a million women have died since the campaign began.
Why are the Waspi in the news?
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published his second report into the matter on Thursday, after investigating the saga for five years.
This report found that those affected had not been adequately informed – and therefore an apology and payout were required.
He called on parliament to “act quickly” to set up a compensation scheme, offering between £1,000 and £2,950 for each person affected.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has not acknowledged its mistakes or tried to put things right, according to the watchdog.
The report said: “We recognize the very significant cost to taxpayers of compensating all the women affected by DWP maladministration.
“Compensating every girl born in the 1950s at level four would mean spending between around £3.5 billion and £10.5 billion of public money, although we understand that not all of them will have suffered injustice.”
What has the government said?
The government is not obliged to follow these recommendations, although a spokesperson for the prime minister and the Department for Work and Pensions has said that the government will consider the report.
DWP said the government was “committed” to supporting pensioners, while remaining fair to taxpayers.
It added: “The state pension is the mainstay of income in retirement and will remain so as we secure a further 8.5% increase in April which will increase the state pension for 12 million pensioners by £900.”
