British Waspi chairman Angela Madden is quietly confident that Prime Minister Andy Burnham will fulfill a long-standing promise to pay compensation to 3.5 million women born in the 1950s who were not given sufficient notice of the increase in their state pension age.
Many were hit hard in the wallet – and had little time to close the gap in their finances.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Madden, 72, believes Burnham is in ‘listening mode’ and that ‘if he can do something, he will’. She is convinced this is the case, despite the Prime Minister seemingly backtracking on his support for Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women in June by suggesting that compensation could only take the form of ‘discounted travel’ – something most women born in the 1950s already enjoy by virtue of their age.
‘When he said that [concessionary travel]What he actually said is that he would do something for us, but he didn’t know what that ‘something’ would be,” Madden points out. “What we need to do now is sit around the table with the government and talk about what the options are.”
She added: “The Prime Minister has a golden opportunity to prove that he is a man of the people if he works with us. He may not be able to deliver 100 percent of what we want, but we Waspis can’t be left with nothing.”
Earlier this month, Madden and fellow Waspi campaigner Janet Fulster wrote a second note in as many months to Burnham, urging him to have the “political will” to resolve the issue.
They said “fair and proportionate” compensation should be paid, taking into account the state of the country’s finances. He hasn’t responded yet.
The holy grail Waspi wants is the maximum compensation of more than £10 billion (£2,950 per person) that the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman has recommended in early 2024. This came after a six-year investigation by the Ombudsman into how effectively (or ineffectively) the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) communicated the increase in the state pension age to women in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Waspi women are stepping up to campaign for justice and compensation. They say they have been horribly betrayed by Keir Starmer’s Labor government
Waspi chairman Angela Madden, seen outside Parliament, believes Andy Burnham is in ‘listening mode’ and that ‘if he can do something, he will’
Five years ago, the ombudsman ruled that the DWP had been guilty of ‘mismanagement’ because it had failed to inform many of these women in a timely and adequate manner that their state pension age would increase.
As a result, many did not understand how the changes would affect them until it was too late to do anything to alleviate the delay in receiving their state pension. For those who depend on it for the majority of their retirement income – especially single women – the financial impact has been devastating.
The increases were initially the result of the 1995 Pension Act, which paved the way for a gradual increase in the state pension age for women between 2010 and 2020 from 60 to 65 years. The subsequent Pension Act of 2011 then brought forward the state pension age for women to 2018. Six years ago, the state pension age for both men and women was raised to 66 years.
In 2024, the Ombudsman followed up on his report by recommending the compensation to be paid: ranging from £3.5 billion (£1,000 per individual) to more than £10 billion.
Waspi sensed a victory after nearly a decade of hard campaigning on the issue, although they had initially called for individual compensation of £10,000. But they were horribly betrayed by Keir Starmer’s Labor government.
Although Labor in opposition had supported Waspi’s long-standing call for compensation, the party failed to mention this in its 2024 election manifesto. It was an ominous omission.
In late 2024, it rejected the ombudsman’s recommendations, with then Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall describing the compensation as not a ‘fair or proportionate use of taxpayers’ money’.
She also said most women were already aware of the changes to the state pension age and so were not harmed by the DWP’s delays in sending letters to them about the issue. Her defense of the decision in the House of Commons was met with cries of ‘shame’.
Just under a year later, the government agreed to reconsider its decision not to provide compensation after new evidence came to light. But early this year it said it would hold.
To say Madden is angry at Labour’s betrayal is an understatement. “I am shocked that Labor stood four square behind us in our calls for compensation,” she says, “and then abandoned us when we needed them most.”
She adds: ‘The parliamentary ombudsman defends citizens against government misdeeds. The six-year inquiry, which took an honest look at all the evidence, came up with a solution in the form of compensation and I do not believe its recommendations should be ignored. And I don’t think Andy thinks they should be ignored either.”
Certainly, most of the mood music from Burnham and his phalanx of advisors is positive.
In early June, before he became prime minister, he said he had supported the Waspi campaign for a “long time”. Joking at Starmer, he said: ‘I feel uncomfortable if politicians all held up a banner like that and then it went into government and they did nothing.
‘So I’ll stick to the campaigns I support. I stayed with the Hillsborough families [those who lost loved ones in the 1989 disaster at the home of Sheffield Wednesday and demanded justice, which Burnham helped effect]. I stand by the Waspi women because they deserve compensation for the dishonesty.”
Madden says justice for Waspi will not cost the government £10 billion, claiming Labor under Starmer has used the figure to ‘scare’ people into thinking it would be a big burden for taxpayers to pay.
“Look, first of all, it’s a one-time payment,” she says. “Once the payment is made, the burden on the state is gone forever.
‘Secondly, the compensation could be spread over two or three fiscal years to support public finances.
‘And finally, women should apply for it. There are women who tell us that for one reason or another they were aware of the change in their state pension age – and therefore do not want to claim any compensation.
‘Former Prime Minister Theresa May is in the pool of Waspi women. It is very unlikely that she would make a claim. She was aware of the changes.”
She added: “We will explore all these issues with Andy and find a solution that is fair to both the taxpayer – and I am one of them – and the Waspi community.”
Madden, who lives with husband Joseph near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, has a stake in the campaign. She had to stop working as a computer specialist in 2008 at the age of 54 to care for her sick mother Mary.
But she would not have done that if she had realized that four years later she would be told that her state pension would not be paid out in 2014 as expected, but in 2019.
‘In some ways I was lucky because my husband had a good job, which allowed him to support me until I was 65. But he shouldn’t have done that.
‘For far too long, women had poor pension arrangements, both at work and from the state. Yes, things have gotten better, but the mistakes need to be corrected.”
Although Madden believes October’s Budget will not include anything about Waspi compensation, she is hopeful that there will be a government commitment to compensation next year.
“The power is with us,” she says. “About 80 percent of the public supports our campaign for compensation, we have about 100,000 Waspi members and 150,000 women follow us on social media. Justice must prevail, and sooner rather than later, as a Waspi woman dies every 13 minutes.
“About 450,000 have passed since we launched our campaign eleven years ago. How many more will die before justice is done?’
It’s hard to come away from the interview with the soft-spoken and friendly Angela Madden without feeling angry about the state’s pension betrayal of women born in the 1950s.
As she said to me, justice must prevail. It is now in the hands of the Prime Minister. Will he keep his promise to provide compensation or will he be as two-faced as Starmer?
More than three million women are waiting with bated breath for his decision. Money Mail asked 10 Downing Street for comment on whether the Prime Minister would follow through on his promise to compensate Waspi women.
The country said only that it had accepted “mismanagement” and “apologized to the women affected.”
It added that the DWP had learned lessons from the ombudsman’s investigation and published an action plan in its efforts to provide ‘effective, timely and modern communications on state pensions’.
- Do you think Waspi women deserve compensation? Contact jeff.prestridge@dailymail.co.uk.
