The government has restated its rejection of the campaign from women who claimed they were owed billions after their state pensions age was changed.
The Women Against State Pensions Inequality – Waspi – campaign has lobbied extensively after claiming they were not given sufficient warning of the state pension age for women being lifted to be in line with men from 60 to 65.
Having rejected this claim in December 2024, the government announced a review in November last year when it would consider new evidence.
Politics latest: Starmer’s big China announcement
The Waspi argument centres on the claim the change of pension age was done too quickly, leaving some women financially unprepared to cope with the number of years when they were no longer able to claim their state pension.
The government said in 2024 that they would not be compensated because most women knew the changes were coming, before announcing the review in late 2025.
This review was into a specific claim around how the decision was communicated.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said in the House of Commons that after the review “the government has come to the same conclusion on compensation as…announced in December 2024”.
He added: “There are legitimate and sincerely held views about whether it was wise to increase the state pension age, in particular, whether the decision taken in 2011 by the coalition government to accelerate equalisation and the rise to the age of 66 was the right thing to do or not.”
But Mr McFadden said the review was about “how changes to the state pension age were communicated”, not the way the policy was decided.
The minister told the Commons: “We accept that individual letters about changes to the state pension age could have been sent earlier.
“For this, I want to repeat the apology [from former work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall] on behalf of the government.
“And I am sorry that those letters were not sent sooner.
“We also agree with the [Parliamentary and Health Service] ombudsman that women did not suffer any direct financial loss from the delay.”
Around 3.6 million women were affected by the change to the state pension age.
The government has previously said compensating them could cost £10.5bn.
Women born between April 1951 and 1960 were affected.
The changes were first announced in the 1995 Pensions Act, with a target to equalise male and female pensions by 2020.
In 2011, this was sped up to 2018.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow us on WhatsApp and subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.
