WASPI Women Could Receive Up to £2,950 in 2025 – Eligibility and Payment Dates Revealed

On: Monday, April 21, 2025 10:49 PM

WASPI Women Could Receive Up to £2,950 in 2025 – Eligibility and Payment Dates Revealed

The issue of WASPI compensation has been discussed as a major social and political issue in Britain for some time. More than 30 lakh women have been affected by this dispute. Whether these women should get compensation is a matter of debate. When and how will the government solve this whole issue if the answer is yes
Let us know in detail in this article what WASPI is, what was its background, what has been the attitude of the government so far, and what is going to happen next.

What is WASPI?

The full form of WASPI is Women Against State Pension Inequality. This is a campaign that is raising a voice in favor of those women who were born in the 1950s and are facing the direct impact of the change in the age of state pension in Britain.

Earlier the age of women to get pension was 60 years, but under the Pension Act of 1995 and 2011, it was gradually increased first to 65 and then to 66 years.

The biggest thing was that this change was made without any proper information. As a result, women who had planned to retire at the age of 60 suddenly had to face financial and mental difficulties.

Background of pension age change

The government made this change to equalize the pension age of men and women. But many flaws remained in this process.

Women born between 1950 and 1960 were especially badly affected by this. They neither got information about it in time, nor enough time to make any changes in their retirement planning.

When this process was implemented more rapidly in 2011, the situation became more serious.

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Report of Parliamentary Ombudsman

In March 2024, Britain’s Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), after investigating the whole matter, found that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) did not properly convey the information about this change to these women.

The Ombudsman termed it as maladministration and recommended compensation to these women.

He said that these women should get compensation ranging from £1,000 to £2,950, depending on the trouble they faced. If the government had accepted this recommendation, it would have cost the government around £10.5 billion.

Why is the government not giving compensation?

Although there was hope after the Ombudsman’s report, in December 2024, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall clearly said that the government would not give any compensation.

The government gave three major reasons behind this:

According to a survey conducted in 2006, 90% of women were aware of the change in pension age.
The government said that giving the same compensation to everyone would be unfair to taxpayers.
The amount of compensation is very high (£10.5 billion), which is not possible for the government.
The government argued that the information provided through formal letters was sufficient.
But after this statement, the government had to face criticism from opposition parties, trade unions, and even some leaders of its own party.

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WASPI campaign’s next step

WASPI group has prepared to take legal action against the government’s attitude.

They have sent a “letter before action” to DWP, which means that if the government does not take any action soon, then they will approach the court for judicial review.

If the court accepts their petition, then the government may have to implement the Ombudsman’s recommendations.

Proposed compensation structure

Although no compensation scheme is currently in place, the Ombudsman has suggested compensation amounts based on different circumstances:

This structure is based on the PHSO injustice scale, which is used to determine compensation in government cases.

Level of Impact	Severity of Distress	Recommended Compensation Amount
Level 1	Mild Distress	£500
Level 2	Moderate Distress	£1,000
Level 3	Severe Distress	£1,500
Level 4	Very Severe Distress	£2,000
Level 5	Grave Injustice	£2,950

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Some real-life stories

The pension changes have changed their lives terribly for many women.

Susan (63, Leeds): Susan, who worked in local government for 30 years, had planned to retire at 60. But the sudden increase in the pension age has left her with a cleaning job to get by.

Margaret (64, Glasgow): Margaret never heard from the DWP. She only found out about the change a year before her 60th birthday. She even had to sell her house because of financial difficulties.

There are thousands of women whose lives have been disrupted due to this administrative negligence.

Conclusion

The WASPI compensation issue has sparked continuous arguments throughout the UK about the fairness of pension age changes, which adversely affected women born in the 1950s. The government rejected payment to affected women according to the Ombudsman’s recommendations, primarily because of budget issues and their position that most individuals received notice of changes.