DWP issues statement about WASPI women affected by changes to State Pension age

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has responded to calls to create a hardship fund for women affected by the change to the State Pension age.

So-called WASPI women - Women Against State Pension Inequality - have been waiting since March to hear how the government plans to address cross-party calls for compensation. It follows recommendations made by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) in its final report, published on March 21.

The Conservative MP Sir John Hayes has now received a written response from the government after calling for a hardship fund for the women affected. Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds said that the “best way to support people, including women who have been affected by the change to the State Pension Age is to help them to retrain, return to or progress in work”.

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In a written response to Sir John earlier this week, she added: “For those women who are unable to work but who are not eligible for pensioner benefits because of their age, financial support is still available through the welfare system.”

It follows a report by the Ombudsman in March which found that the DWP had been guilty of ‘maladministration’ by failing to let women know that their State Pension age was due to increase from 60 to 65, then 66. Based on current Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, an estimated 3.5 million 1950s-born women have been affected by increases to the official age of retirement.

The PHSO report stated that “Parliament must urgently identify a mechanism for providing that appropriate remedy” and recommended compensation equivalent to Level four on its banding scale, which is worth between £1,000 and £2,950.

However, no progress has been made on plans to put forward a redress scheme. Angela Madden, Chair of the WASPI campaign, recently said that a meeting with the new Pensions Minister “is the start of something” on the ongoing fight for ‘fair and fast compensation’ for all women impacted by changes to their State Pension age.

The meeting between Ms Reynolds and WASPI representatives was held in private at Westminster at the start of this month. However, appearing on BBC Breakfast the day after the meeting, Ms Madden explained how the campaign for justice has been running for nearly 10 years and this was the first time a meeting with a Pensions Minister had taken place to discuss taking the recommendations made by the PHSO forward.

The WASPI Chair said: “Our campaign has been going for nearly 10 years now and this is the first meeting we've had with a Pensions Minister. So that’s quite significant. We certainly felt listened to, Emma Reynolds is new in this job and she very much was listening, gathering information and understanding our position. She’s certainly got the official information, she’s read the reports (PHSO) and knows we appeared at the Work and Pensions Committee meeting earlier in May.”

Polling carried out ahead of the election indicated that 68 per cent of the British public said that ‘fair and fast compensation’ should now be paid to women who received little or no notice of changes to their State Pension age.