There are moments when those in power face a true test of character. Moments when the principle of justice demands action from the people with the authority to right a wrong. As a nation, we have witnessed several injustices in recent years: the Horizon scandal, with postmasters enduring years of wrongful accusations; the infected blood scandal, which devastated countless lives; and now, the plight of the WASPI women.
As I stated during my Westminster Hall debate last week, the genesis of betrayal is trust. The kind of trust that underpins the democratic legitimacy of Parliament and on which the authority of the Executive is founded, and the kind of trust that our constituents, when they send us to this place to exercise our judgment on their behalf, rely upon. Their faith in us is that we will honour what we say we will do and that when we make pledges, they are not empty but are meaningful. When trust is breached, the whole of that legitimacy is undermined.
That is precisely what has happened in the case of the WASPI women. These women, born in the 1950s, are mothers and grandmothers who toiled to nurture families and support communities. They played by the rules, worked hard, paid into the system, and rightly expected that, when the time came, the state would honour its promises.
The abrupt increase to the State Pension age, from 60 to 65, was poorly communicated and implemented with little regard for the destructive impact on the lives of women born decades earlier.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman has found that the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) failure to properly inform those affected amounts to incompetence. It stated that, “maladministration in DWP’s communication about the 1995 Pensions Act resulted in complainants losing opportunities to make informed decisions about some things and to do some things differently and diminished their sense of personal autonomy and financial control.”
Having been in this House for a long time, been on the Front Bench of my party for 19 years and been a Minister in many Departments, I have rarely seen an ombudsman’s report as clear as this one about mishandling by a Government Department. Yet, despite this ruling, the WASPI women continue to be denied compensation.
What grieves me most is not just the financial impact — though that has been significant but the moral failure at the root of all this. The WASPI women are not seeking charity, but justice. They are asking for what is theirs by right.
It is a basic tenet of British life that when you work hard and contribute to society, you are entitled to security in later years. To break that promise is to breach a social contract that has long served as a foundation of trust between government and the governed.
Some claim that compensating these women is too expensive, but I say: what would be the cost of failing to repair the broken trust of an entire generation? Surely the consequence of breaching this long-held understanding is far greater than paying the reparations owed.
These women are far from faceless figures. They gave up careers to care for children and elderly relatives, stepping up during times of national hardship, working long hours, often for low pay, in roles that are too often undervalued.
Older people deserve our support. After the Chancellor’s brutal cut in Winter Fuel Payments —is it any wonder that so many pensioners feel abandoned? The failure to stand by the WASPI women is another example of a material disregard for those who have worked and toiled for the benefit of this nation.
Dismissing these claims is not only an insult to their contribution but also a denial of their inherent dignity. It tells these women that their years of service and steadfastness mean nothing – surely that’s a message that no decent government should send.
During my Westminster Hall debate last week I quoted the great J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote that “False hopes are more dangerous than fears”. We have given these women false hope. Ministers must act – for this is not merely a matter of arithmetic, it’s a moral duty. The WASPI women deserve a just settlement, and it is time justice was done.
WASPI women deserve a just settlement, and it is time justice was done
