Time is running perilously short for women who lost out because of changes made to their state pensions to see justice, said a Suffolk WASPI campaigner. 

The longer it takes to investigate the government’s failings, the fewer women affected will be alive to seek compensation, explained Judi Moss of the Suffolk branch of WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality). 

An Ombudsman is currently examining the government's handling of raising women’s state pension age from 60 to 65 and then 66, the same age that men can withdraw their state pensions. 

Women born between 1950 and 1960 were affected. However, the Department for Work and Pensions did not make them aware of this so they could plan for the future, only informing them of the change in April 2009 - more than two years later. 

A report published in July 2021 acknowledged the government's failure in communication. However, the second stage of a now-redacted report tried to claim that this failure “did not lead to all the injustices claimed”. 

WASPI swiftly mounted a legal challenge and emerged victorious.  

This report is now being rewritten. However, concerns have been raised over the amount of time this is taking. WASPI representatives and two solicitors met with the Ombudsman's team in late September to express this. 

“We've lost over a quarter of a million women who were born in the 1950s and have now died, and this contentious issue has still not reached a conclusion,” said Ms Moss.  

“One 1950s-born woman dies every 30 minutes, so there are so many women who will never see the conclusion to this.” 

However, she said that she and her fellow WASPI women will not be deterred. 

“My 13-year-old granddaughter said, are you like the Suffragettes, Nana?” explained Ms Moss. “I said, not quite – but this is about never giving up.  

“If you believe that something is an injustice, you have to keep sticking your head above the parapet, however difficult that is.”