WASPI women affected by rises to the State Pension age have been denied compensation this week.
WASPI
The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign group have had a petition open since November, calling on the Government to compensate WASPI women who were affected by the State Pension age changes and the failings in communication around it.
Background
In 1995, the Government announced plans to gradually raise women’s State Pension age from 60 to 65 to match men’s, which was to take place from 2010-2020.
In 2010, this timeline was expedited, meaning women born in the 1950s faced delays in accessing their State Pensions.
According to WASPI, “3.8 million women have been hit particularly hard” and some women have seen a 4, 5 or 6 year increase to their retirement age without knowing about it.
PHSO Investigation
The Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) investigated complaints from women born in the 1950s that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to provide them with:
“accurate, adequate and timely information about changes to the State Pension age and the number of qualifying years needed to claim the full rate of the new State Pension and the number of qualifying years needed to claim the full rate of the new State Pension”
In March this year, the PSHO published a final report, where they stated maladministration from the DWP was found in two respects:
- DWP did not take sufficient account of the need for individually tailored information when making decisions about next steps in August 2005
- DWP did not act quickly enough on a November 2006 proposal to write directly to women affected by changes to the State Pension age
The combined result of these failures led to a 28-month delay in mailing to women born in the 1950s about the rise in State Pension Age.
Government Response
The PHSO called for the Government to provide compensation for those affected. However, despite acknowledging and apologising for the delay in writing to the affected women, DWP does not accept that any compensation should be paid. They have stated that “the PHSO’s conclusions are insufficiently reasoned and illogical, and we therefore reject the finding of maladministration.”
Furthermore, they state that the PHSO have not necessarily “properly reflected the evidence that only 1 in 4 people recall and read unsolicited letters.” Essentially, they reject the belief that sending those letters earlier would have significantly impacted whether women knew that their State Pension age was rising or given them more opportunity to make informed decisions, because not everyone will have read the letters sent.
The Government has stated that a blanket compensation scheme could cost up to £10.5 billion which “cannot be justified” when there is evidence suggesting 90% of women knew about the changes to State Pension age.