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WASPI campaigners (Women Against State Pension Inequality) are looking forward to a key event in Parliament next week as MPs debate the idea of compensation for the women. MPs will meet the

discuss the issue following a petition to Parliament calling for a compensation scheme for the 1950s-born generation of women gathered over 159,000 signatures. The campaigners contend they

were insufficiently informed by the DWP of the state pension age hike from 60 to 65 or 66, which caught many off-guard and disrupted their retirement plans. A previous ruling by the

Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found 'maladministration' in how the DWP communicated the changes and recommended compensations between £1,000 and £2,950. Yet the Labour

Government declared late last year there would be no compensation scheme. With many MPs endorsing the cause for payouts, WASPI chair Angela Madden expressed optimism for the upcoming

debate. She said: "This is a debate resulting from a petition that we started some time ago. We've got a three-hour debate this time, which will allow a lot more people to speak.

"There wasn't enough time in the last debate, in an hour and a half, at the last debate, for everyone to get up and say what they wanted to say. It will be very interesting to see

how that goes on Monday." There was previously a debate in Westminster Hall on the matter in January, with many politicians expressing their outrage over the Government's refusal

to offer compensation. The debate next week is also set to occur in Westminster Hall, on March 17 at 4.30pm, with Liberal Democrat MP Dr Roz Savage leading the discussion. The Liberal

Democrats have consistently backed compensation for the WASPI women, a stance also adopted by the SNP and the Green Party. Ms Madden expressed her belief that Labour will abstain from voting

in the debate, although she thinks that some individual Labour MPs will express their support for the cause. She voiced her frustration that many MPs remain non-committal on the issue:

"There's several MPs who don't voice one way or the other. The real disappointment is the Liz Kendalls, Angela Rayners, Rachel Reeves, and to a degree Keir Starmer, who have

decided to go against us rather than just not do anything." The WASPI campaign recently initiated a new legal attempt to reverse the Government's decision not to compensate,

preparing a judicial review for the high court to scrutinise the decision. A fundraiser for the legal challenge has now amassed £150,000 in public support. When questioned about the judicial

review, a DWP spokesperson stated: "We do not comment on live litigation. We accept the Ombudsman's finding of maladministration and have apologised for there being a 28-month

delay in writing to 1950s-born women. "However, evidence showed only one in four people remember reading and receiving letters that they weren't expecting and that by 2006 90% of

1950s-born women knew that the state pension age was changing. The Government cannot justify paying for a £10.5billion compensation scheme at the expense of the taxpayer."