Victory for Waspi women: Ombudsman tells parliament to set up compensation scheme – after DWP refuses to act

The Parliamentary Ombudsman has ordered the government to compensate women for failing to adequately inform them that their state pension age has been postponed.

It has asked parliament to intervene and quickly set up a compensation scheme, over the heads of the Department for Work and Pensions, which has refused to do so.

The Ombudsman has recommended that those affected should receive £1,000 to £2,950 in compensation, which it said would cost £3.5 billion to £10.5 billion if paid to all women born in the 1950s.

The Ombudsman’s chief executive, Rebecca Hilsenrath, said: ‘Britain’s National Ombudsman has identified DWP’s failings in this case and ruled that the women affected are owed compensation.

‘DWP has clearly indicated that it will refuse to comply. This is not acceptable. The ministry must do the right thing and be held accountable if it does not do so.

‘Complainants do not have to wait to see whether DWP will take action to correct its shortcomings.

‘Given the grave concerns we have that it will fail to act on our findings and the need to put things right for the women affected as quickly as possible, we have proactively asked Parliament to intervene and to hold the ministry accountable.

‘Parliament must now act quickly and ensure that a compensation scheme is in place. We believe this will provide women with the fastest path to recovery.”

Many women born in the 1950s struggled as they waited longer than they expected to receive a state pension.

They argued that there were major shortcomings in the way the increase in the state pension age was communicated. Two increases were also accelerated in quick succession in 2018 and 2020, leaving little time to fill the gap in their retirement finances.

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign today said the DWP’s approach was ‘incredible’ and called for the issue to become a key election issue for the 3.6 million women affected.

It urges all parties to include pledges for “fair and prompt compensation” in their manifestos.

Waspi group chairman Angela Madden said: ‘The DWP’s refusal to accept the clear conclusions of this five-year investigation is simply unbelievable. Every 13 minutes one of the affected women dies, and we cannot afford to wait any longer.

‘Now that the PHSO findings have finally been published, all parties owe it to the women affected to make a clear and unequivocal commitment to compensation.

‘The Ombudsman has put the ball firmly in Parliament’s court, and it is now up to MPs to deliver justice for all 3.6 million women affected.’

Liberal Democrat pensions spokesperson Wendy Chamberlain said: ‘After years of waiting, the Ombudsman has finally recommended compensation for WASPI women.

“These courageous women, who fought tirelessly for justice after being left without their own money, deserve our admiration for their perseverance.

“Liberal Democrats have long supported WASPI in their campaign and it is now up to this Conservative government to come up with a plan to get these women the compensation they are owed.”

Former Pensions Minister Ros Altmann said: ‘The long-awaited report from the Parliamentary Ombudsman on the government’s handling of the increase in the state pension age for women is finally out. It’s damned.

‘It highlights clear failings and indicates that millions of women are owed an apology, to acknowledge the impact on their retirement plans, but does not recommend the level of compensation that many WASPI women were hoping for.

‘An apology would of course be a start, but that will not pay the bills of those who have been pushed into poverty because they did not know their state pension age had been raised. Nor will it solve the suffering, anger and fear of women born in the 1950s.”

Lady Altmann added: ‘When I was a Minister it seemed that I was the only person in the DWP who believed that the issue of the state pension age for women should be taken seriously and that the Government’s failure would lead to serious hardship had led.

‘Having campaigned against the coalition government’s 2011 proposals to further raise the state pension age for women following the 1995 measures, I knew there were problems.

‘Unfortunately, Parliament has plowed ahead, despite the pleas from me and many others. Accelerating the increases after 2015 was unfair and the WASPI campaign began around that time. Since then, the women have been campaigning for compensation.

‘I hoped to come up with a plan that would allow those most affected to claim money to stay afloat, but this was rejected by both fellow ministers and the women themselves.’

In the summer of 2021, the Parliamentary Ombudsman highlighted the government’s failure to write directly to affected women sooner and take action based on internal research to improve and target communication.

Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) says the findings reinforce what it ‘knew all along’ about the failure of the Department for Work and Pensions to adequately inform 3.8 million women born in the 1950s that their state pension age would increase.

The Waspi campaign says it agrees with equalizing retirement ages for women and men, but disagrees with the “unfair” way the changes were implemented.

At the insistence of the Waspi group, thousands of women filed official complaints for not informing them of increases in the state pension age.

The Ombudsman suspended a decision during a judicial review brought by the separate BackTo60 group, which was ultimately unsuccessful.

When the Ombudsman raised the issue again, the Ombudsman said women should have been given at least 28 months more individual notice of changes to their state pension age, an opportunity to adjust their pension plans that had been ‘lost’.

Since 2021, she has considered ‘the impact the injustice had’ and possible recommendations for recovery.

A DWP spokesperson said: ‘We will consider the Ombudsman’s report and respond in due course, having co-operated fully throughout this investigation.

“The government has always been committed to supporting all retirees in a sustainable way, ensuring they receive a dignified retirement while being fair to them and taxpayers.

‘The state pension is the basis of retirement income and will remain so as we implement a further 8.5 per cent increase in April, which will increase the state pension by £900 for 12 million pensioners.

Why is there controversy about raising the state pension age for women?

Plans to equalize the state pension age for men and women were first outlined in 1995.

The then conservative government announced its intention to gradually increase the retirement age for women to 65 between 2010 and 2020.

This was followed in 2007 by a Labor announcement 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, hitting women particularly hard as their increases came earlier than expected and in quick succession.

Initially, the review included a limit of up to two years of additional waiting time for a state pension, but protests led to the limit being reduced to 18 months.

About 2.6 million women were given five years’ notice before their retirement age.

The Women Against State Pension Inequality or Waspi campaign has been fighting for measures to cushion the financial blow, urging women to complain first to the DWP itself and then to the Parliamentary and Healthcare Ombudsman.

A separate group, BackTo60, filed legal proceedings, but this was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in September 2020.

Waspi said the courts could not rule on maladministration because that was the Ombudsman’s role.

The end of the court case gave the Parliamentary Ombudsman the freedom to investigate women’s complaints, and its 2021 report accused the government of “maladministration” over delays in informing women of the changes.

In recent years, the country has been considering “the impact the injustice had” and making recommendations to address what happened.