Thousands owed compensation over changes to state pension age

Thousands of women should be paid compensation after a failure to inform them that the state pension age had changed, a report has found.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has asked Parliament to hold the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to account over the matter.

The PHSO investigated claims that since 1995 DWP failed to provide accurate, adequate, and timely information about state pension reform.

It has found the DWP failed to adequately inform thousands of women that the state pension age had changed which caused them ‘unnecessary stress and anxiety’.

‘The DWP has not acknowledged its failings nor put things right for those women affected’, it says.

The report adds the DWP didn’t ‘adequately investigate or respond’ to complaints and didn’t ‘demonstrate principles of good complaint handling’.

Complainants said there were ‘factual inaccuracies’, ‘standardised responses’ and complaints ‘took too long’ to be handled.

The ombudsman also found that women lost opportunities to make informed decisions about their finances, which diminished their personal autonomy and financial control.

Based on what authors of the report were told, they ‘strongly doubt’ the DWP will ‘provide a remedy’ to the situation.

PHSO chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath said: ‘The UK’s national ombudsman has made a finding of failings by the Department for Work and Pensions in this case and has ruled that the women affected are owed compensation. DWP has clearly indicated that it will refuse to comply. This is unacceptable. The department must do the right thing and it must be held to account for failure to do so.

‘Complainants should not have to wait and see whether DWP will take action to rectify its failings. Given the significant concerns we have that it will fail to act on our findings and given the need to make things right for the affected women as soon as possible, we have proactively asked Parliament to intervene and hold the department to account.

‘Parliament now needs to act swiftly, and make sure a compensation scheme is established. We think this will provide women with the quickest route to remedy.’

Meanwhile Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) chairwoman Angela Madden called for a ‘proper compensation package’ for those who had been affected over the years.

She said: ‘The DWP’s (Department for Work and Pensions) refusal to accept the clear conclusions of this five-year-long investigation is simply unbelievable. One of the affected women is dying every 13 minutes, and we just cannot afford to wait any longer.

‘Now that the PHSO (Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman) findings have at last been published, all parties owe it to the women affected to make a clear and unambiguous commitment to compensation.

‘The ombudsman has put the ball firmly in Parliament’s court and it is now for MPs to do justice to all the 3.6 million women affected.

‘We are now looking to those who have supported us over the years to put their money with their mouth is and back us on a proper compensation package. All the parties are now in the spotlight with Waspi women watching and waiting to see how they should best use their votes in the coming general election.’

Downing Street has declined to comment on the report’s findings.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: ‘We obviously understand the close interest in this and you will appreciate this report has only just been published.

‘The government will now consider the ombudsman’s report and respond to their recommendations formally in due course, and we will also co-operate with the parliamentary process as we have done throughout with the ombudsman.

‘More broadly, we have always been committed to supporting pensioners in a way that provides them with a sustainable retirement whilst also balancing fairness to them and taxpayers, for example, as you know, we’ve maintained our commitment to the triple lock and next month this will increase by £900 – an uplift of 8.5% which is double the rate of inflation.’

Women born in the 1950s had to wait longer for their state pension when changes to the state pension age to equalise it across genders was accelerated in 2010.

The 1995 Pensions Act raised the state age pension for women born on or after April 6 1950.

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