The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been urged to pay out compensation to women affected by the State Pension age change.
A campaign was launched by the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) after a ruling in 2019 led to 3.8 million women born in the 1950s having their state pension age increased from 60 to 66. An investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has ruled the DWP should have written to the women affected at least 28 months earlier than it did - as Birmingham Live reports.
The ombudsman watchdog has requested further evidence from the department by the end of this month before it will move on to the next stage. The decision has been welcomed by the WASPI who have today demanded the DWP give a one-off payment between £11,666 and £20,000 as compensation to those that have been affected.
READ MORE: DWP benefit claimants could be fined £50 after moving to a new GP or getting a divorce
The PHSO found maladministration by the DWP and is currently investigating whether it caused injustice to the complainants. Changes to the State Pension age, which were legislated for in 1995, were not communicated through targeted letters to the affected women until 2008, leading the PHSO to find that "the opportunity that additional notice would have given them to adjust their retirement plans was lost."
The report continued: "DWP failed to take adequate account of the need for targeted and individually tailored information. Despite having identified there was more it could do, it failed to provide the public with as full information as possible."
WASPI’s figures show that over the course of the two-year covid pandemic, 1 in 10 women who died was affected by these un-communicated changes and lost both their State Pension income and the opportunity to make alternative retirement plans.
Analysis carried out by Statista shows 220,190 women impacted by the age changes will have died in the seven years since the campaign began. The research was commissioned by WASPI and also found that over the seven years since WASPI started campaigning, the government will have saved £3.8bn on compensation likely to be awarded.
WASPI spokeswoman Angela Madden said: "The government’s strategy of delaying inevitable compensation payments is a cynical attempt to time women out of what they are due. The Chancellor is effectively banking on the grim reaper saving him more and more money each year, leaving women struggling to pay their bills in retirement and lacking in trust in Government.
"Since the ombudsman has already found that women born in the 1950s were mistreated, the right thing to do is to put in place a compensation package right away. Doing so would end the agony for millions of women who have been emotionally, physically and financially affected by mistakes made in government."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
