Waspi women threaten legal action after pension payouts rejected
The campaigners threaten the government to take legal action unless it reconsider reimbursement for millions of women affected by the age of state pensions.
The Women Against National Pension Inequality (WASPI) Panel asked to pay for 3.6 million women born in the 1950s who did not properly inform the changes first introduced in the 1990s.
The government apologized that the changes were not communicated quickly enough, but told the BBC that “cannot pay for the compensation scheme at the expense of taxpayers”.
“We believe it’s not only anger, but legally wrong,” said Waspi chairman Angela Madden.
The “letter before action” sent to the government is a formal mechanism that can have the opportunity to respond within two weeks before the High Court seeks judicial review in the High Court.
Last year, the Parliamentary Ombudsman recommended spending up to £2,950 per person due to a 28-month delay in writing to inform affected women.
Waspi activists claim women suffered financial difficulties and had to rethink their retirement plans.
However, in December, Work and Pension Secretary Liz Kendall apologized for the delayed newsletter but said there was a “conspicuous awareness” about the changes in the pension era. She said sending letters earlier would not change their ability to make retirement choices.
Her claim that any direct financial losses can now be checked in court if the campaigner is approved for a judicial review.
Ms Madden said: “We do not allow DWP to burn measures against Waspi women without challenges.
“The government has accepted that women born in the 1950s were victims of bad management, but now says none of us suffers any injustice.”
She received no compensation, she said: “The alternative is to continue the defense, but this time before the judge.”
WASPI Group has also launched a crowdfunding campaign to try to pay an estimated legal fee of £75,000.
If women are to win the case, it is estimated that this could cost the government up to £10.5 billion.
The government’s finances are already under pressure due to weak economic growth and high borrowing costs, and Sir Keir Starmer said, “Taxpayers can’t afford to pay for compensation at all.”
These changes were first decided in 1995, when the conservative government tried to balance the age of men and women in state pensions, with the intention that by 2020, everyone would have to wait until their 65th birthday.
However, after the 2010 global financial crisis, the coalition of conservatives decided to speed up changes to reduce the overall cost of the country’s pension.
Similar decisions have been made in recent years – but the British government has not communicated its changes quickly enough to now examine its impact in court.
A government spokesman told the BBC on Sunday that it accepted the Ombudsman’s findings of bad management and apologized for a 28-month written delay for women born in the 1950s.
“However, there is evidence that only one in four people remember reading and receiving letters they didn’t expect, and by 2006, 90% of women born in the 1950s knew that the age of state pensions was changing,” they said. .”
“Earlier letters won’t affect that.”
