WASPI issue 'hopeful' update over DWP compensation after being left out of Budget

WASPI women have issued a "hopeful" update in the wake of being left out of the Labour Party Budget. Ministers are under pressure to deliver payouts to 3.6million women who were affected by the change in state pension ages. A landmark report in March recommended compensation of £1,000 to £2,995 to victims because of failures at the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ).

This would cost taxpayers between £3.5billion and £10billion. But following the Chancellor's silence in the Commons chamber, the head of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) group those affected "cannot continue to be patient".

The scandal affects women born in the 1950s who weren't properly informed that the state pension age went up. The group estimates that 25,000 WASPI women have died since the bombshell report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman earlier this year.

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Angela Madden, chair of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), expressed frustration to GB News, saying: "We are another historic injustice." She said: "Both Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, in opposition, accepted that we had suffered injustice historically and it needed to be resolved.

"We met with Emma Reynolds. She says she has no plans to kick the can down the road, but she needs to look into the ombudsman's report, evidence from the Work and Pensions Committee." She said: "We had a meeting with her which was very cordial. She was listening. This is a new Government.

"They've been in place since July. It was heartening today to hear that they had set aside money for the infected blood injustice and for the post office injustice, and we're hoping that we are the next one." The Chair of the campaign explained: "We suffered injustice because the Department of Work and Pensions didn't tell us about the changes to our own state pension ages.

"Apparently they put a few adverts in papers, things like that, but they never told any of the women the effect it was having on them until those women were about a year or two away from the retirement they thought they were going to have. The Ombudsman has recommended compensation. And we want that compensation to be paid as quickly as possible."