Sunday, 25 January 2026
WASPI women continue to seek pension compensation
Calder Valley MP, Josh Fenton fails to give his wholehearted support to over 6000 women in his Calder Valley constituency who have lost out
WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women are women, primarily born in the 1950s, who are campaigning for compensation because they were unfairly affected by increases in the State Pension Age without proper notice, disrupting their retirement plans and financial security.
The changes followed on from the 1995 and 2011 Pensions Acts which raised the State Pension age to 65 and then to 66, affecting women who had expected to retire at 60, leading to hardship and financial instability, with the campaign demanding fair transitional relief for the injustice caused by poor or absent communication
Local campaigners have written to MP Josh Fenton about this matter. Here is his reply:
Thank you for your email regarding WASPI women.
I understand the challenges faced by women born in the 1950s who were affected by changes to the State Pension Age brought about by the Pensions Act 2011.
As you are aware, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published the findings of its investigation into the impact of pension age equalisation on women in March 2024. The Government issued a formal response to this in December 2024.
Since then, new evidence has been cited from a 2007 report – a Department for Work and Pensions evaluation of the effectiveness of Automatic Pension Forecast letters. This had not been provided to Ministers at the time so could not be considered alongside all other relevant material. Therefore, in the interests of fairness and transparency, the Government will now consider this evidence and retake the decision.
This does not guarantee that the decision will be different this time and compensation awarded.
I know many like yourself were disappointed with the decision made by the Government to not compensate WASPI women. Having made representations to Ministers before this original decision, I have since expressed to the Secretary of State the anger and upset of many constituents following the announcement.
I recognise this is a very difficult issue and we have to balance the nation's finances with supporting people who've lost out over this issue.
Our Government is committed to supporting pensioners, and I am pleased that we are committed to keeping the triple lock for pensions, which means a rise of 3.8% in the 2026/27 year – equivalent to £574 more for those on the full New State Pension.
I think it is important that the government have apologised, and I will continue to support calls for lessons to be learnt from what happened. It is clear that future changes need to be communicated more clearly and in a more targeted way, to ensure everyone can properly plan for their retirement.
There is a national campaign which remains very active. They are calling upon one million supportive letters to MPs before the end of February, when ministers will decide on compensation for 1950s-born women.