The Department for Work and Pensions has broken its silence over fresh calls for an “assessment” for WASPI women. Liberal Democrats MP Steve Darling asked in a parliamentary question if the Government would look at the case laid out in the Ombudsman report last month.
He reached out to ask the DWP “to ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of maladministration around communications of State Pension age changes on the six sample cases in the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report entitled Women’s State Pension age: our findings on injustice and associated issues, HC 638, published on 21 March 2024.”
Labour Party MP Torsten Bell replied: “The Department for Work and Pensions has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.”
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The WASPI campaign estimate 3.6 million women lost out financially because the government did not adequately communicate the changes in the state pension age over a number of years, meaning people could not properly plan for their retirement.
They have been asking for compensation, saying many women were forced to work up to six years longer than expected or face financial hardship in older age. A government spokesperson said: “We accept the Ombudsman’s finding of maladministration and have apologised for there being a 28-month delay in writing to 1950s-born women.
“However, evidence showed only one in four people remember reading and receiving letters that they weren’t expecting and that by 2006 90% of 1950s-born women knew that the State Pension age was changing.
“Earlier letters wouldn’t have affected this. For these and other reasons the government cannot justify paying for a £10.5 billion compensation scheme at the expense of the taxpayer.”