Could Andy Burnham Finally Deliver Compensation for WASPI Women in Spain?

Andy Burnham may help WASPI Women in Spain

For thousands of WASPI women, a change in Prime Minister may represent something they have waited years to hear—hope.

There is a vague chance that the change of UK Prime Minister may benefit women who were born between 1950 and 1960.

Successive British governments supported the concept of increasing pension ages for all but first decided to raise the retirement age for women from 60 to 65 to place them equal with men. Many women who were born between 1950 and 1960 (some 3.6 million) discovered, often too late to do anything about it, that their rights to receive State Pension support had changed and left them working longer and with insufficient notice to make new sensible financial provisions. Thus, an action group, Women Against State Pension Inequality (colloquially known as WASPI Women) was formed and started a campaign to try to obtain compensation for those who were left with insufficient funds to comfortably see them into old age. Whilst in Opposition, many Labour MPs made it clear that they supported the claim and stated publicly that something should be done. Indeed, it was and the Parliamentary Ombudsman spent several years investigating the background to what had happened and decided that the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) did not give adequate warning to those women who were likely to be affected, meaning that in many cases there were unable to take measures to allow them to take out private pensions to cover them. In essence, the Ombudsman recommended that every women who fell into the 1950 to 1960 age range should receive compensation of between £1,000 to £2,950. Nothing like the amount that WASPI believed was reasonable but at least it would be a small gesture of recompense that would be welcome. In cash terms to the Government this would cost between £3.6 billion and £10.62 billion, although since the campaign first started, more than 423,000 women who should have received compensation have died and the financial obligation therefore reduced. Move forward to the last General Election and many followers of WASPI were pleased that a Labour government had been returned to power as so many MPs, old and new had expressed their support for compensation. Much to the surprise of these modern-day Suffragettes, there was an abrupt change of heart from the Labour Government. Even though it reluctantly accepted that the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) had made errors in announcing and publicising the pension change, all it was prepared to do was apologise if any were inconvenience had occurred but refused to make any compensation payment to any of the women affected. So, whilst the British Government appears to have enough money to double its commitment to NATO (just a mere £43 billion) and to allow the Army to sponsor England football on TV up to and including the World Cup Finals it came out against the plight of pensioners and the disabled. During the two years of the premiership of Sir Keir Starmer, U-turns abounded with dithering which saw a review of winter fuel payments (not relevant to those of us who live in Spain) and an ‘uprising’ from Labour back benchers over planned welfare cuts, but it continues to be obdurate over the case of the ‘WASPI Women’ although the group is demanding a third U-turn. For this reason, the leadership of WASPI announced that it was taking the Government to court, but first applied for financial support from Government lawyers proposing a costs capping arrangement, in line with the clear public interest in this case, and its complexity. Perhaps unsurprisingly the response was negative, so the next step was to apply to the Court for approval so that the WASPI case may go ahead without the risk of bankrupting the organisation and those involved with it should the case be lost. At the very last minute, the Government capitulated and agreed to a costs cap although WASPI still faces enormous legal costs in hiring lawyers and experts to argue the case for the three million plus women involved although hopefully this may not be needed. Just prior to Andy Burnham becoming Prime Minister, he followed the Labour concept of initially changing his stance over payments for the WASPI Women in June of this year by denying payment but once he moved into No10, he has confirmed to the WASPI Women that he would be happy to meet with them to discuss possible ways forward. Those of us living in Spain may initially say “So What” but as there are an estimated 180,000 British born female expat residents in Spain, logic suggests that as many as 18,000 could be eligible for any payment that is finally made. It won´t be a fortune but with ever increasing living costs and the growing number of pensioners asking for assistance from support groups such as Age Concern on the Costa del Sol, any compensation will be welcome, although it is sadly possible that even this small amount will be eaten into by the Spanish Tax system.