“We’re certainly not giving up the fight,” said Debbie de Spon, membership director of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign.
The government’s decision comes despite an independent government review recommending the compensation.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, head of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which wrote the review, told Times Radio that although the government had accepted that it had delayed writing to 1950s-born women by 28 months, and apologised, it had rejected paying compensation.
“What we don’t expect is for an acknowledgement to be made by a public body that it’s got it wrong but then refuse to make it right for those affected,” she said.
Ms Reeves said she understood that campaigners “feel disappointed by this decision”, but recommendations by a parliamentary ombudsman had said that “around 90% of women did know that these changes were coming”.
“I didn’t judge that it would be the best use of taxpayers’ money to pay an expensive compensation bill for something that most people knew was happening,” she added.
The government has said compensation could cost up to £10.5bn.
But Ms De Spon said many Waspi women “didn’t know” about the pensions changes, and even to this day women are saying: “I never even received a letter, let alone when I received a letter”.
She added that former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne had saved more than £180bn by raising the state pension age and “boasted that it was easiest money he had ever saved”.
“We’re asking for a tiny fraction of that back as compensation for government failure,” she said.
