Image source, Getty Images

By Jennifer Clarke

BBC News

Millions of women affected by a decision to increase the state pension age will not get compensation, the government has said.

It accepted that changes affecting women born in the 1950s weren’t communicated quickly enough. However, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall rejected a recommendation to pay them up to £2,950 each.

The modern state pension was introduced in 1948.

Men who had made enough National Insurance (NI) contributions received their state pension at 65 and women at 60.

However, in 1995 the then Conservative government introduced a timetable to make the age at which men and women start getting state pensions the same.

The state pension age for women would gradually rise to 65, between 2010 and 2020.

In 2010, the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government decided to speed up the changes, to reduce the overall cost of the state pension.

The Pension Act 2011 brought forward the qualifying age of 65 for women to 2018.

In 2020, the state pension age for both men and women increased to 66.

Under current plans, the state pension age is set to rise again to 67 between 2026 and 2028, and to 68 between 2044 and 2046.

About 3.6 million women were affected by the 1995 decision to increase the pension age to 65.

Of those, 2.6 million were affected by the decision to bring the date forward to 2018.

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign groupexternal has held protests about the issue and lobbied successive governments.

It does not oppose the equalisation of the state pension age for women and men.

However, it wants women affected to be compensated because it says the government failed to tell them – or provide adequate notice – about the changes.

It says many were forced to continue working past their expected retirement age, or to live on significantly less income than they had planned. It says they have suffered financial and emotional distress as a result.

The group wants lump sum payments for those who have already reached state pension age, plus extra income for those who have not yet been able to claim their state pension.

It previously suggested some women should receive £10,000 each, at a cost of £36bn.

The group estimates that at least 300,000 affected women have died during its campaign.

In March 2024, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) said the government had failed to adequately inform thousands of women that the state pension age had changedexternal. 

It said “too many” didn’t understand how the change affected them, and that their complaints “weren’t adequately investigated”.

As a result the PHSO, which is responsible for investigating complaints about UK government departments, said women should be compensated.

It recommended payments of between £1,000 and £2,950 – less than Waspi had called for.

However, the ombudsman cannot force the government to pay compensation.

Its report noted that the Department for Work and Pensions had “clearly indicated it will refuse to comply”.

In December 2024, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall said Waspi women would not receive compensation.

She accepted there had been a “maladministration” in communication, with a 28-month delay in letters being sent out to women, and apologised for this.

But she said research suggested there had been “considerable awareness” among women about the changes to the state pension age, and that there was no evidence of “direct financial loss”.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves defended the decision, telling reporters that “given that the vast majority of people did know about these changes, I didn’t judge that it would be the best use of taxpayers’ money to pay an expensive compensation bill”.

Both Kendall and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer previously supported the Waspi campaign, but the party didn’t commit to paying compensation in its manifesto ahead of the 2024 general election.

The Waspi campaign described the announcement as an “insult”.

“The government has today made an unprecedented political choice to ignore the clear recommendations of an independent watchdog,” said group chair Angela Madden.

Speaking on Times Radio, the current head of the PHSO, Rebecca Hilsenrath, also criticised the government’s decision: “What we don’t expect is for an acknowledgement to be made by a public body that it’s got it wrong but then refuse to make it right for those affected.”

The amount of state pension you get depends on when you were born, and the number of “qualifying years” of National Insurance contributions you have.

Those who reached state pension age before April 2016 get the old basic state pension – currently worth £169.50 a week.

Those who reached state pension age after that date get the new state pension, worth £221.20 a week.

From 6 April 2025, these will be worth £176.45 and £230.25 a week respectively.

You can use online government calculators to check how much pension you will be entitled to, and when you will be able to start taking it.

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