The government has reaffirmed its decision not to introduce compensation for women affected by changes to the state pension age (WASPI), despite issuing a new decision on failures in historic communications.

In a document, ministers accepted that there had been maladministration in the way changes to the state pension age were communicated to women born in the 1950s, but concluded that financial compensation would be neither fair nor feasible.

The revised decision follows a legal challenge brought by the WASPI campaign, which argued that the government’s original response in December 2024 was flawed because it failed to consider key evidence.

In November 2025, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Pat McFadden, committed to reconsidering the communications element of the decision “in the interests of fairness and transparency”.

The High Court then scheduled an urgent case management to consider the government’s announcement.

In the new response, the government acknowledged that decision-making between August 2005 and December 2007 resulted in a 28-month delay in sending individual letters to affected women regarding increases in the state pension age.

Ministers apologised for the delay, acknowledging that letters should have been sent earlier.

However, the government again rejected the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) recommendation that compensation should be paid.

It argued that the evidence showed most women were already aware that the state pension age was changing and that only a minority would have read and acted on an earlier, unsolicited letter.

The government added that the PHSO had not properly accounted for evidence suggesting low readership and recall of pension-related correspondence, concluding that, for a majority of women, earlier notification would not have altered their decisions.

It also reiterated that the ombudsman found no direct financial loss arising from the maladministration.

Ministers further warned that any compensation scheme would be prohibitively complex, costly and vulnerable to fraud and error.

The cost of a blanket compensation scheme was estimated at between £3.5bn and £10.3bn, excluding administration costs, which the government said would not represent good value for taxpayers.

Responding to the latest decision, the WASPI group said it demonstrated "utter contempt" for those affected.

"The government has kicked the can down the road for months, only to arrive at exactly the same conclusion it has always wanted to," said chair, Angela Madden.

"This is a disgraceful political choice by a small group of very powerful people who have decided the harm and injustice suffered by millions of ordinary women simply does not matter."

Liberal Democrat work and pensions spokesperson, Steve Darling, added that affected women would feel "utterly betrayed" by the decision.

"False hope was given to them in the autumn, and so that hope has been dashed," he said.

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