Waspi

Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) is a group that campaigns for women born in the UK in the 1950s who have been affected by changes proposed by the 1995/2011 Pensions Act. This included plans to increase women’s state pension age to 65. Waspi argues that these changes were made in an unfair manner in a faster timescale than originally proposed, not giving the women affected the time to make alternative arrangements.

The Waspi issue has become a controversial issue, with opposition parties pressing the government to make a redress to the women. For example, the Liberal Democrats argued in January 2018 that each of the Waspi women should be given £15,000 each in compensation while the Labour Party’s 2017 General Election manifesto said that a Labour government would “end Tory unfairness” for women impacted by state pension age increases, and would compensate those worst affected.

However, in February 2018 the Conservative government rejected calls to compensate women born in the 1950s. Pensions minister Guy Opperman said the proposals to hike these pensions were “unaffordable” when he responded to an opposition debate on the issue in parliament.