'Remarkable' update issued over WASPI compensation from DWP worth £2,950
A "remarkable" update has been issued over the battle for WASPI compensation. The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) has so far denied payouts worth £2,950 for WASPI women impacted by historic injustices in the state pension.
Labour Party officials ruled out compensation payouts in December - despite the Ombudsman saying women should be handed £2,950. Officials from the DWP appeared before the Work and Pensions Committee this week to discuss the WASPI decision.
Committee member, John Milne, said: “The suggestion that the letters wouldn’t have worked anyway was a major part of the Secretary of State’s reasoning in not offering compensation. It’s a remarkable claim because letters as a form of communication were used and still are used by every area of Government all the time.”
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DWP permanent secretary, Sir Peter Schofield, replied: “If we had written those letters 28 months earlier, would it have made a significant enough difference to count as injustice, and to take you into the context of talking about remedy.”
He added: “And in that context, the Government’s view was that it did not, as the Secretary of State set out.” Mr Schofield warned: “The rate of people coming forward has been very low compared to what we projected. The work we’ve done suggests that a lot of people, they get a message from HMRC and they don’t believe it’s from HMRC.”
He said: “Absolutely we need to make sure our letters are more effective. But it’s not only that that is the only channel of communication. Increasingly, if you want to know about your state pension age, you shouldn’t be relying on letters, you should go on the check your state pension website, where you can identify in a personalised way, what is your own state pension age and where are you in terms of your own National Insurance records and where you need to be.
“That is the way forward, enabling online channels for people to self serve and to get the information they need.”