A council has agreed to lobby the government to resolve the WASPI dispute over changes made to the state pension age for women in 1995.

Medway Council unanimously agreed a motion which will see the authority push the department for work and pensions (DWP) for answers on how it will deliver compensation for those affected.

An estimated 3.8 million women born in the fifties have been affected by changes to the state pension age.

The motion was proposed by Cllr Ron Sands of the Independent Group at the full council meeting on July 18.

He asked the council to agree with the findings of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on State Pension Inequality that the women have suffered a gross injustice, and support the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign’s calls for an immediate one-off compensation payment of £10,000 for all women affected.

It also asked the leader of the council to write to MPS, the secretary of state for work and pensions, and the leader of the House of Commons to outline the effects on the so-called WASPI women and ask for urgent proposals for how it can be resolved and an opportunity for a debate in parliament.

Cllr Sands said: “A whole generation of women have been so badly let down by the department for work and pensions and political parties.

“An estimated 3.8 million women being forced to wait up to six years longer to receive a state pension they were always fully entitled to - approximately 5,000 of those women are here in Medway.

“Thousands of women have had years now of financial hardship due to their retirement plans in anticipation of a state pension from the age of 60.

“I have checked the figures this afternoon, 286,400 women have died since 2015, waiting for what was rightfully theirs.

“The WASPI women have battled for many years for justice and now a clear verdict has finally been handed down.

“These women were robbed of a chance to plan for retirement by the DWP. Now, justice must be given.”

The issue stems from changes in the 1995 Pension Changes Act, which saw the age at which women would receive the state pension increase from 60 to 65, with the change to be phased in over 10 years starting in 2010.

However, the so-called WASPI women - women born in the 1950s - say the changes were not communicated properly and left many women expecting to retire but unable to because their state pension would not start for up to six years later.

This has left many facing signficant financial hardship and the WASPI campaign group has called on the government to provide compensation for those affected.

In March, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman ruled that six women who brought test cases should receive between £1,000 and £2,950 in compensation for maladministration after the DWP failed to listen to its own research showing public campaigns were not reaching enough affected women.

It also found that individual letters should have been sent.

Cllr Teresa Murray (Lab) supported the motion, saying: “I pay tribute to the Medway WASPI campaign, and particularly to Flick Foreman [the Medway WASPI members' representative director] who along with others continues to campaign.

“I’m pleased to say we’ve been able to work with Naushabah Khan MP (Lab) who was able to speak directly to the work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall (Lab) who has promised to take this whole issue very seriously and to look at all the evidence again.

“In the meantime, Cllr Sands’ motion, the Medway WASPI women and WASPI women everywhere have my support - they were hugely let down and this was an entirely avoidable mess-up by government.”

Cllr David Brake (Con) said his group would also be supporting the motion and, in order to show the strength of feeling, suggested the item be taken directly to a vote with no further debate.

The motion received unanimous support and was approved, meaning the council would write to the government and put pressure on it to resolve the situation.