By Liz S

This story was covered in the BBC website on the 11 October 2025.

“Government to rethink rejection of Waspi compensation”

It’s a strange kind of non story that automatically did make you think that the timing of this is a tad too convenient what with the Scottish & Welsh elections coming up next year…..

Also with reports that Keir Starmer is currently “fighting attempts to replace him” from some within the party who are considered to be a tad too keen and a tad too ambitious as his Labour colleagues , who are now seeing an opportunity , what with the polls showing just how bad things are for Labour under Keir Starmer.

(Also his , Starmer’s, own very low polling , as both a leader and as the PM , also makes him vulnerable just now as well).

So then he, Starmer, and Labour need some big announcements to take them into the elections next year to try and avoid a total Wipeout for them and also to try and save Starmer’s job.

So back to the BBC article and this supposed breaking ‘news’….

“A document was not shown to Liz Kendall, who was Work and Pensions Secretary at the time of the decision, but had since come to light and needed to be considered, the government has now said”.

Oh really BBC, surely this is a way for Liz Kendall to be saved as a current government Minister but now she is in a different ministerial position….in that she based her previous decision last year only on the supposed ‘facts’ that she had when she said these things below in the government’s response to the report by the Ombudsman on WASPI women…..a copy of this speech , dated the 17 December 2024, is on the UK government’s website under “Government response to Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) report ”)

“The 28-month delay in sending out letters to women born in the 1950s. was maladministration. The Ombudsman says these delays did not result in the women suffering direct financial loss … but they were maladministration“

They, the Labour government, “agreed that the women suffered no direct financial loss because of this maladministration“.

However, “they did not agree with the Ombudsman’s approach to injustice or remedy.  And she, Kendall, wanted to spell out why”

“First, the report does not properly take into account research showing there was actually considerable awareness that the State Pension age was increasing”  

They , the government, also “could not accept that sending a letter earlier would have affected whether women knew their State Pension age was rising or would have increased their opportunities to make informed decisions”

So  “two facts: Most women knew the State Pension age was increasing and that letters aren’t as significant as the Ombudsman says”.

“Our conclusion is that there should be no scheme of financial compensation to 1950s born women in response to the Ombudsman’s report”

So you can read the full report online on Kendall’s response to the Ombudsmen’s findings and recommendations that this Labour government decided not to agree with or implement.

So back to the BBC article written on 11 November where it states:

“Current Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden told the Commons that retaking the decision would not automatically lead to compensation“

“Retaking this decision should not be taken as an indication that government will necessarily decide that it should award financial redress,” he said.

So then what is the actual point of this announcement being made ?

Other than for some kind of perceived political benefit to Labour in the elections next year.

Well the article states that “The undisclosed evidence involved was a survey from 2007, and McFadden said that checks would be made to ensure other documents and surveys had not been missed. No timescale has been given for the work to be done“.

“Checks would be made but no timescale“

That reeks of another infamous Labour empty aka broken promise that will, post the elections next year, likely peter out, as in conclude that the findings on the checks they made cannot now justify any compensation being made to WASPI women?

I mean the compensation some deserve will not be made via the amounts that some WASPI women state they have lost while the various UK governments have been reported as having “saved an estimated £181.4 billion by the end of the 2025-2026 financial year due to the increase in the state pension age for women born in the 1950s” .

Follow the money always……….plenty money for defence but no money for the people in the various nations within the UK State that you, as a UK government, supposedly govern.

The BBC article then adds that “Angela Madden, who chairs Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi), said: “The government now knows it got it wrong and we are pleased they are now trying to do it properly”

(Are they though ? As in “trying to do it properly” ) ?

“We hope they also try to do it quickly” she also said.

(That will not happen as they, the government have stated that “No timescale has been given for the work to be done“).

She also added “that the only correct thing to do was to compensate those affected immediately“

(But the government have actually said, via Pat McFadden, “retaking the decision would not automatically lead to compensation” and also he added that “this decision should not be taken as an indication that government will necessarily decide that it should award financial redress” ).

So if the WASPI women do fall for this obvious contrived political ploy that is not offering any real substance on what the WASPI women actually want and so should get……as in a firm offer of compensation……..

Well then if this does result in some WASPI women unwisely deciding (yet again) to vote Labour next year in the elections, then I am afraid that perhaps we, as I am a WASPI women too, deserve everything we (have not and never will) get from any UK government.

(Though as a WASPI women myself , I will not be voting Labour next year ……..fool me once shame on you and fool me twice shame on me……that is what all WASPI women should really all be thinking just now.…….especially their spokespersons……..as this half baked announcement equates to Jack S*** as far as a definite commitment and pledge to right the wrong that was done to WASPI women).