More than 250,000 women affected by changes in state pension age have died pending compensation

More than 250,000 women affected by state pension age changes have died while waiting for compensation, the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign has revealed.

Nearly four million women born in the 1950s had their retirement plans messed up after DWP failed to pass increases in the state pension age from 60 to 65, and later 66, and tens of thousands were killed as a result. plunged into poverty.

Hundreds of thousands of women lost the ability to plan for retirement, and some were not notified of the change in age until several months before they turned 60.

Many of the affected women had already retired or reduced their working hours by the time they found out they wouldn’t get a state pension at age 60.

Last month, the parliamentary ombudsman accused the government of ‘maladministration’ for failing to inform 3.8 million women born in the 1950s that their state pension age would be raised to 66.

The full state pension is £203.85 per week or £10,600 per year. The state pension is likely to rise by 8.2 per cent to £220.60 a week or about £11,500 a year ahead of the next election.

‘A miserable end to a lifetime of hard work’

Susan Taylor is an affected Waspi woman whose sister died in 2019.

Susan says: ‘Both my sister and I were born in the 1950s and our retirement plans were completely destroyed by the state pension fiasco.

“I lost her to cancer at age 59 and was diagnosed with lung cancer myself at age 62. I have no quality of life and the financial pressure I am dealing with is immense.

“Some days it is extremely hard to see anything other than a miserable end to a lifetime of hard work as the fight for justice continues for so many women.

“It pains me to think she will never see the end of our campaign, but I am even more determined to fight to have our injustices properly acknowledged on behalf of all the women who are no longer with us.”

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s second phase report has yet to be published, following a successful legal challenge against his original draft, which was found to be illegal.

A final phase three report will then recommend to the government what level of compensation should be paid to affected women for the hardships faced by tens of thousands. But campaigners say women have waited long enough and ministers must act now.

‘Justice delayed is justice denied’

The Waspi Campaign was founded in 2015 to campaign for fair and prompt compensation, with some of the hardest hit women receiving six years’ notice to their state pensions just a few months in advance.

The grim milestone of a quarter of a million female deaths since the start of the campaign means that about 15 percent of all those affected by the changes to the state pension age have now died.

Angela Madden, chairwoman of the Waspi campaign, says: ‘For the 250,000 women who have died while waiting for this issue to be resolved, a delay of justice is really a denial of justice.

“The Ombudsman’s inquiry has been going on for five long years and it has been two years since he confirmed that the DWP had committed maladministration.

“Making women wait another day for an appropriate compensation proposal is appalling disregard for all of us.”

A spokesperson for DWP said: ‘We support millions of people every year and our priority is to ensure that they receive the help and support they are entitled to.

‘More than 25 years ago, the government decided to make the state pension age the same for men and women.

Both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal have supported the DWP’s actions under successive governments since 1995 and the Supreme Court denied the plaintiffs leave to appeal.”

What is the controversy surrounding the increase in the state pension age for women?

For decades, the age at which you could receive state pension was 65 for men and 60 for women.

Plans to equalize the state pension age for men and women were outlined in 1995, when the then Conservative government declared its intention to gradually raise the state pension age for women to 65 between 2010 and 2020.

This was followed in 2007 by an announcement from Labor that both men and women would see their retirement ages rise to 66 between 2024 and 2026.

But in 2011, Chancellor George Osborne brought forward the timing of both changes to 2018 and 2020 respectively, with women being hit particularly hard as their rises occurred both earlier than expected and in rapid succession.

The changes to the state pension age for women were not well communicated, resulting in millions of women born in the 1950s receiving an extension of their retirement age just five years in advance.

The women lost up to £50,000 due to the increase in the age limit.