The WASPI Campaign was founded in 2015
Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) has shared a warning about scams on their X page. The WASPI Campaign was founded in 2015 and continues to go from strength to strength.
The WASPI Campaign is fighting for justice for all women born in the 1950s (on or after 6th April 1950 to 5th April 1960) affected by the changes to the State Pension Age (SPA).
On their website, the organisation states: “WASPI is not against equalisation, but we do not accept the unfair way the changes to our SPA were implemented with inadequate or no notice.”
The 1995 Conservative Government’s State Pension Act included plans to increase women’s state pension age from 60 to 65 so that it was the same as men’s. WASPI agrees with equalisation, but does not agree with the unfair way the changes were implemented.
Because of the way the increases were brought in, women born in the 1950s (on or after 6th April 1950-5th April 1960) 3.8 million women have been hit particularly hard. WASPI has explained the reason for their campaigning.
They said: “We are angry that we have been treated unfairly and unequally just because of the day we were born. Significant changes to the age we receive our state pension have been imposed upon us with a lack of appropriate notification.”
In a post uploaded to X, WASPI shared with their following of over 30,000 users “We’ve been alerted to several scams asking #WASPI women to share personal information in order to claim compensation. They are all SCAMS. No compensation scheme exists yet.”
The new warning comes after a statement from WASPI about scams in December. They wrote “Multiple unofficial websites have emerged in recent days, claiming those impacted by short-notice State Pension age increases can claim up to £2,950, depending on their circumstances.
“The websites, appearing to originate outside of the UK, include Savemytaxes and Investbihar which claim women born in the 1950s can get payouts through submitting compensation claim forms.” WASPI Chair Angela Madden said it was “deeply concerning” that a number of websites were encouraging those affected by the changes to share their personal details with unknown entities.
She said any announcement of a compensation scheme for WASPI women would come directly from the UK Government. However, with no decision yet taken by ministers, no such scheme currently exists. Any official announcement on compensation will be made by the UK Government. Anybody who has given their personal data to a potentially fraudulent website should contact Action Fraud.
This month, the Waspi campaign has hit its £180,000 crowdfunding target to help finance its judicial review and has published its grounds to claim against the government. In an update published on the crowdfunding website, WASPI group has said the government’s rejection of the PHSO’s findings about injustice was not based on “cogent or even rational reasons”.
Within the government’s decision to not award compensation, it states “the substantial majority of the group of women who were not informed of the change to their state pension age cannot have suffered injustice because they were aware of their state pension age”.
