No, £10.3 Billion Is Not the Cost of WASPI Compensation — It's the Highest Possible Estimate

The claim that a compensation scheme for women affected by changes to the state pension age — the so-called WASPI women — would cost £10.3 billion is only partially true. That number is real, but it represents the absolute maximum end of a range of estimates, not a single agreed cost. Presenting it as the cost is misleading.

In March 2024, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) found that the government had failed to adequately notify women born in the 1950s about changes to their state pension age. The PHSO recommended compensation of between £1,000 and £2,950 per affected woman. Applied to approximately 3.5 million women, that produces a range running from around £3.5 billion at the low end to roughly £10.5 billion at the high end, as confirmed by the House of Commons Library.

The £10.3 billion figure comes from applying a near-maximum award to every single eligible claimant. The PHSO did not mandate that level — it set a band, and the actual payout would depend on individual circumstances and the award level chosen by whoever implemented the scheme. The BBC confirmed that the figure was contingent on the highest award being applied universally, which was never a given.

In any case, the debate became academic in December 2024 when the UK government rejected the PHSO's findings altogether. Ministers said they did not accept the finding of maladministration and would not be setting up a compensation scheme at all. That makes every specific cost estimate, including £10.3 billion, purely hypothetical for now.

This kind of figure spreads because a single large number is far easier to share and remember than a range with caveats. Both sides had reasons to repeat it — campaigners to illustrate the scale of the injustice, opponents to argue it was unaffordable. Neither group had much incentive to add the words "at most" or "depending on assumptions." When you see a precise billion-pound figure attached to a complex policy question, that precision is almost always a sign that someone has chosen the number that best suits their argument.