Fair and fast compensation for WASPI women

Client: WASPI - Women Against State Pension Inequality

WASPI – Women Against State Pension Inequality – is a voluntary organisation founded in 2015, campaigning on behalf of the 3.6 million women still being affected by changes to the State Pension age. These changes were poorly communicated by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), with many affected not finding out about the change until 2008. Some were given only one year’s notice of a six-year delay to their retirement, and as such, an independent investigation found the DWP to have committed maladministration over a significant period of time.

Since spring 2022, Higginson Strategy has worked with WASPI to highlight the financial and emotional difficulties that WASPI women face to both MPs and Treasury and DWP policymakers, through a series of Parliamentary briefing events, letter-writing campaigns and a presence at party conferences. Through building a drumbeat of national media coverage and responding to key national debates, such as on the triple lock and pensioner poverty, WASPI were able to centre their campaign as key issue for 1950s-born voters and to further demonstrate the need for compensation for affected individuals.