DWP Pensions Minister confirms 'careful review' of WASPI compensation proposals

The new Pensions Minister says she is carefully reviewing a detailed report by the ombudsman on compensation for WASPI women
-Credit: (Image: PA)


The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed it is carrying out a careful review of a report into State Pension age changes affecting millions of women. Labour's new Pensions Minister, Emma Reynolds, recently met Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) after mounting pressure for a government compensation package was temporarily halted by the General Election.

WASPI is keen for the new administration to act on a report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published in March. The report recommended compensation at level 4 on its scale, which is £1,000 to £2,950 for "a significant and/or lasting injustice that has, to some extent, affected someone's ability to live a relatively normal life."

The long-running WASPI campaign relates to 3.8 million women born between April 6, 1950, and April 5, 1960, who found their State Pension age had gone up from 60 to 65 and then to 66. The ombudsman says the DWP did not give the women enough notice of the changes and that compensating all of those affected at its suggested level would involve spending between £3.5 billion and £10.5 billion.

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Asked by MPs to give a timetable for responding to the ombudsman's report, Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds told a DWP question and answer session in the House of Commons on Tuesday: "I was the first Minister for eight long years to meet Women Against State Pension Inequality campaigners to hear their experiences directly. However, we do need time to carefully consider the ombudsman's report and evidence before we can outline our approach.

"The ombudsman's report is a serious report that took six years to complete and deserves serious consideration. We are carefully reviewing the details of that complex report and will come to a conclusion in the round." She added: "We need time to look at that seriously, and we are doing precisely that."

The ombudsman found the DWP guilty of maladministration for failing to provide adequate notification to people whose pension age was going up from 60 to 65 as a result of the 1995 Pensions Act and for failing to handle complaints properly. However, it said the department did give people enough warning about the impact of the Pensions Act 2011, which further pushed up the qualifying age from 65 to 66.

The report stated: "We found that DWP began writing to people affected by the 2011 Pensions Act promptly. But maladministration led to a delay in DWP writing to women about their State Pension age changing as a result of the 1995 Pensions Act. Research reported in 2004 showed that only 43 per cent of all women affected by the 1995 Pensions Act knew their State Pension was 65, or between 60 and 65.

"We find that maladministration in DWP's communication about the 1995 Pensions Act resulted in complainants losing opportunities to make informed decisions about some things and to do some things differently, and diminished their sense of personal autonomy and financial control. We do not find that it resulted in them suffering direct financial loss."

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