The Department for Work and Pensions is reportedly considering abandoning plans to provide compensation to WASPI women after the staggering true cost of potential payouts emerged.
Government reconsiders position after new evidence
Ministers are having second thoughts about their decision to deny compensation to Women Against State Pension Inequality campaigners following what's being described as "new evidence" coming to light. The dramatic U-turn could see the government completely scrap compensation plans altogether.
The potential bill for compensating the 3.5 million women affected by changes to the state pension age has emerged as a massive £10.5 billion, creating significant concerns within the Treasury about the impact on public finances.
Expert warns of Treasury nightmare
Tom Selby, head of retirement policy at investment platform AJ Bell, highlighted the enormous financial implications. "Clearly if the Government were forced to pay out £10bn in compensation to Waspi women this would blow a huge hole in the Treasury’s coffers," he warned.
Mr Selby suggested that despite the legal pressure, the DWP might still ditch compensation plans due to the ballooning costs, noting that "it is not clear that this will happen."
He explained the government's potential reasoning: "For the DWP to take this decision, they must view that the legal position they took in not paying compensation is now on shaky ground."
The expert painted a grim picture for the Chancellor, stating that such a payout would create "yet another nightmare for a chancellor already being forced into some very unpopular tax choices."
Public divided over compensation claims
The debate has sparked strong reactions from the public, with many questioning whether the women should receive compensation given that pension changes were widely publicised.
One Telegraph reader questioned: "With a projected cost of £10.5bn, where does the money come from? Are we supposed to believe that everyone making a claim never heard about the change when it was first announced in the early 90's?"
Another comment highlighted the historical discrimination faced by women born in the 1950s: "Most women born in the 1950's were discriminated against when first entering the work place by inequality of pay and not being provided with a company pension as it was 'men only'."
Meanwhile, another perspective questioned the priority given to pensioners over other struggling groups: "It's really hard to get behind the idea that in a time of economic difficulty the demographic most in need of assistance is pensioners... rather than students facing 50k of debt."
The government faces a difficult balancing act between addressing potential injustices to women affected by pension age changes and managing the enormous financial burden such compensation would impose on public finances.
