Andy Burnham has ruled out paying compensation to the “Waspi women” who claim they lost out owing to changes to the state pension age – but said he was open to the idea of giving them other benefits.
Burnham had previously indicated he backed compensating as many as 3.6 million women born in the 1950s, some of whom claim they lost thousands of pounds because they were ill-informed about the changes.
But on Thursday, after a backlash over the billions a compensation scheme would cost, a spokeswoman for the Greater Manchester mayor said he had intended to look at other offers such as subsidised transport.
Ministers said last year they would not give any compensation to the women affected despite a ruling by the parliamentary and health service ombudsman in March 2024 that they should be compensated.
Burnham was reported to have told a Makerfield byelection hustings event on Wednesday he would “stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness”.
However, a spokeswoman for the Labour leadership hopeful told the Financial Times that Burnham considered the compensation case closed but believed there might be other gestures to help the generation that was affected.
“He accepts the final decision has been made in relation to financial compensation but has indicated an openness to considering similar schemes on the Greater Manchester model,” the spokesperson said on Thursday, adding that he had “supported Waspi women in the city-region with early access to concessionary travel, providing some recompense to them within affordability limits”.
The government has said any flat-rate compensation scheme paid out to all women born in the 1950s would cost up to £10.3bn and “would simply not be right or fair” given most women said they were aware of the changes.
But campaigners said they were left with unaffordable retirement plans after the coalition government sped up the pension age increase from 60 to 65 and then to 66.
The Waspi campaigners – supported by large numbers of Labour MPs in opposition and by parties including the Liberal Democrats – say many women did not receive the required communication about the change and some discovered their state pension age had increased by several years only after giving up work.
At the hustings for the byelection, where Burnham is attempting to return to Westminster with his eyes on No 10, he criticised the government for seeming to have reneged on promises made to the Waspi women. Compensation was not in the Labour manifesto but the cause had been repeatedly backed by Labour MPs standing for office.
“I have long supported the campaign. And I feel uncomfortable when politicians were all holding up that sort of banner and then it got into government and didn’t do anything,” Burnham said, according to the Manchester Evening News.
“So I stick by the campaigns that I support. I stuck by the Hillsborough families. I’ll stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness.”
