Taxpayers face £90,000 ‘burden’ in WASPI legal battle | Personal Finance | Finance
Taxpayers could end up shouldering a bill of £90,000 if the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaigners win their judicial review.
The High Court has set caps on the amount each party can claim from the other in legal costs upon victory. In the event that the government triumphs, the WASPI campaign would only be liable to contribute a maximum of £60,000 towards legal costs.
Campaigners have welcomed this decision as it prevents them from having to drop out due to extravagant legal bills which could potentially escalate to several hundreds of thousands of pounds. Meanwhile, if the WASPI campaign emerges victorious, they will be entitled to demand no more than £90,000 from the government to cover their legal expenses, which would ultimately be paid by the taxpayer.
It is understood that the government agreed to the cap on legal costs to prevent the taxpayers from facing a bill in excess of six figures.
Speaking to The Telegraph, WASPI chairwoman Angela Madden said: “This agreement, fully approved by the court, is a vital step forward in our legal campaign. Without this safeguard, we faced a real risk of financial ruin, of effectively being silenced by the threat of Government legal bills running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
“We now have the certainty we need to press on, but the costs of fighting this case remain very real. Our expert legal team is showing they can and do win victories against the Government, but it takes time and forensic presentation of our evidence, and that costs money.
“This is the fight of our lives, and we can’t win it without public support.” The campaign’s CrowdJustice page has already raised £226,612 to help cover the costs of the judicial review.
Last year, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published a scathing report calling on the government to intervene and compensate the women affected by a historic state pension age change. This change resulted in some women having to wait six years longer than anticipated to receive their state pension, with little communication about the shift.
During the general election, the report was overlooked until Labour came into power. In December, Sir Keir Starmer dismissed the idea of compensating WASPI women, cliaming that 90 per cent of women were aware of the change ahead of time.
Following the announcement, the Prime Minister told reporters, as reported by Sky News: “I do understand, of course, the concern of the Waspi women. But also I have to take into account whether it’s right at the moment to impose a further burden on the taxpayer, which is what it would be.”
