Author Archives: Donna Harris

When Liberal Democrats gather at conference, we often debate policy in terms of budgets, systems and reforms. But sometimes an issue comes before us that cuts far deeper than policy mechanics. The injustice faced by women born in the 1950s, or WASPI women, is one of those.

This is not simply about pensions. It is about fairness, trust in government, and how we treat the generation of women who helped build the Britain we benefit from today.

Millions of women born in the 1950s were affected by rapid increases to the State Pension Age. In some cases, their retirement age rose by as much as six years. The real injustice, however, was not just the change itself, but how it was communicated.

Many women discovered these changes with as little as 18 months’ notice.

Eighteen months is not enough time to rebuild a retirement plan that someone has spent forty years working towards. Retirement planning is something people structure their entire working lives around. To suddenly move the goalposts so dramatically, without proper notice, left millions of women in an impossible position.

In contrast, by contrast, typically received up to six years’ notice for an increase of just one year, exposing the deeply unequal and gendered impact of these changes.

We now know that this was not simply unfortunate or unavoidable. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman investigated and found maladministration by the Department for Work and Pensions in failing to properly notify women of changes to their State Pension age. That is not the language of campaigners or political opponents; it is the official conclusion of the body Parliament established to hold government departments accountable.

Yet despite this finding, justice for these women is still being denied. On 29 January this year, the Labour Government announced that it would not be compensating these women.

This is particularly disappointing given how many now Labour cabinet ministers previously expressed their support for the WASPI women when they sought their votes, only to deny them any compensation at all once in office.

Lib Dem Women, the official body representing women in the Liberal Democrats, has submitted an emergency motion calling on the Government to accept the Ombudsman’s recommendations, to apologise to the women affected and to introduce a fair, transparent and comprehensive compensation scheme. You can read it here in Conference Extra.

This motion is about fairness, accountability and ensuring that women who were failed by the system are not ignored. The generation of women who are most affected are also the generation who started their careers before the Sex Discrimination Act so they could be sacked for getting pregnant or even married, didn’t have much in the way of childcare provision and were on the sharp end of the gender pay gap. To make them wait up to an additional six years for their State Pension is an injustice too far.