Waspi women deserve justice over the pensions scandal

Editorial: There are some striking parallels here with the plight of the subpostmasters and their struggle for justice against indifferent officialdom

(Dave Brown)

Blunders happen in all bureaucracies, and the Department for Work and Pensions, and its previous incarnations, are no exception.

However, the scale of the financial and emotional damage wreaked on the Women Against State Pension Inequality – the so-called Waspi women – effectively robbed of a very large proportion of their state pension, is both wide and grievous. Every woman born between 1950 and 1960 – some 3.6 million individuals – has suffered a toll on their standard of living, and in some cases where their health has been adversely affected, the full costs involved are incalculable.

The report of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), an independent watchdog, is damning and places the responsibility for the fiasco on the state. Unusually, it directly calls for parliament to remedy matters, given the long-term reluctance of successive administrations to make amends.