Mon, 24 Feb 2025

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 Waspi women threaten legal action over pensions row

It comes after the government rejected compensation for women hit by changes to the state pension age.

* A campaign group, Waspi, has threatened the government with legal action over its refusal to compensate 3.6m women born in the 1950s who were affected by an increase in the state pension age.
* The government has accepted that there was maladministration and apologised for a 28-month delay in informing the women of the changes, but has refused to pay compensation.
* Waspi is demanding payouts of up to £2,950 each as recommended by the parliamentary ombudsman.
* The group claims that women suffered financial hardship and had to rethink their retirement plans due to the delayed communications.
* The government claims that there was "considerable awareness" of the changes and that sending letters earlier would not have made a difference to the women's ability to make retirement choices.
* Waspi has launched a crowd-funding campaign to cover estimated £75,000 in legal fees.
* If the women were to win their case, it could cost the government up to £10.5 billion.
* The changes were first introduced in 1995 and sped up in 2010 by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition.
* Other countries have made similar decisions, but the UK government's communication of the change was not timely enough.
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