'Every MP must now decide whether they stand with 1950s-born women, or with an incompetent Government department that fails to own up to its own mistakes'
Pension campaign group WASPI is demanding a vote in Parliament after ministers rejected compensation for Fifties born women for a second time.
Campaigners, led by north Derbyshire based Angela Madden, have been embroiled in a decade-long battle for financial redress for women affected by the DWP’s failure to communicate increases to their state pension age.
In March 2024, the Parliamentary Ombudsman found that DWP committed maladministration and recommended compensation of between £1,000 and £2,950 each for those affected. However, this was rejected by the government later that year.
The government refused WASPI’s second bid for compensation last week following a review. WASPI claim that more than 9,500 affected women have died since the reconsideration of the case began on November 11, 2025 and are urging ministers to change course, or potentially face new legal action.
WASPI is now leading a letter campaign which urges the Government to enable all MPs to have their say on delivering compensation. Since the Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden’s announcement on Thursday that financial redress would not be made, more than 5,000 people have written to their MPs to demand a vote is held in Parliament. This equates to one letter being sent every 69 seconds.
Derbyshire has approximately 70,000 women who want to see the PHSO recommendations implemented in full.
Angela Madden, who lives near Chesterfield, said: “The DWP persists in acting as perpetrator, judge an d jury in its own maladministration denying that they caused us harm and that we deserve compensation. They hold WASPI women, the Ombudsman and Parliament in contempt. The Ombudsman knew the DWP would never admit the extent of their wrongdoing and laid the report before Parliament. Pat McFadden is denying his peers the opportunity to represent us, their constituents. That's undemocratic in our view.
“Parliament has a duty to act. Every MP must now decide whether they stand with 1950s-born women, or with an incompetent Government department that fails to own up to its own mistakes.
“There must be a binding vote on compensation in Government time so all our elected representatives can have their say.”
Pat McFadden and his predecessor Liz Kendall have both said in Parliament that most 50s-born women would have been aware of the changes to state pension age. In December 2024 Ms Kendall said that the Government believed that the compensation of up to £10.5billion would not be fair or proportionate to taxpayers.