Hope in pension battle

FIVE-MINUTE GUIDE TO... WASPI WOMEN 

- Harvey Jones

THIS is the year when so-called “Waspi women” will finally discover whether they are due compensation for the decision to raise the state pension age for women to bring it into line with men.

The Waspi campaign, which stands for Women Against State Pension Inequality, has been fighting for the 3.8 million women born in the 1950s who were forced to work for longer than they had expected before hitting retirement age.

Campaigners say they were not given sufficient warning of the decision to increase women’s retirement age from 60 to 65, and then to 66 in 2020.

Many women claim they did not realise that they would have to work for an extra five or six years until shortly before they were originally due to retire, and suffered life-changing hardship as a result.

Some died without receiving a penny in state pension, despite making years of National Insurance contributions.

Some 18 months ago, Waspi campaigners were celebrating what they saw as a supportive ruling by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.