WASPI campaigners are telling the DWP to end the game after it refused the meeting

WASPI women told the government to stop “hiding” and declared: “We will not go away”. WASPI campaigners who want compensation for their underpayments and historic injustices have called on the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to end the “game”.

WASPI campaigners told MPs on Tuesday 7 May that Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride is refusing to meet them to discuss the compensation scheme recommended in a Parliamentary Ombudsman report. Angela Madden, chair of the group, said: “The DWP have shown they will hide behind anything to avoid admitting they have done anything wrong.

“Maybe now is the time to stop the game.” The DWP has been accused of throwing the WASPI issue “into the long grass” after an Ombudsman ruled the women should be compensated in a damning report earlier this year.

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Jane Cowley, a fellow campaigner, said requests for a meeting with Mr Stride had been ignored. “It looks to us like they’re playing for time and hoping to kick it into the long grass,” she warned. “We are not going away,” Ms Cowley told MPs.

“We can’t walk away when we have a woman (Waspi) dying every 13 minutes without justice. We will not stand by and passively accept that injustice. We know we have many MPs who support the House of Commons and indeed when it comes to elections, (we have) the ballot boxes. And, if necessary, the legal system.”

“They (DWP) seem to be scared of the consequences of admitting failure,” Ms Madden said. “It’s something we’re going to push and push until (the Government) feels they have to. We will keep the pressure on. The DWP cannot continue to ignore us.”

A DWP spokesman said Mr Stride had “considered the ombudsman’s report and will respond in due course”.