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Parliamentary Ombudsman report: DWP has not accepted its recommendations and the new Government is considering its response
Do Waspi women have to register in some way to have any chance of getting any compensation?
Steve Webb responds: I am pleased to inform you of the situation of women affected by the lack of notification of changes to their state pension age.
But right from the start I must stress that as things stand, there is no compensation plan or anything to “sign up” for.
If you are asked to enter your details on a website, it may be a scam, as we warned earlier this year after being alerted by the Women Against Inequality in State Pensions (Waspi) campaign.
The most important development in this whole issue was the publication of a report by the Parliamentary Ombudsman in March 2024 which concluded that “thousands of women may have been affected by the DWP’s failure to inform them that the state pension age had changed.
Please note that the Ombudsman has always made clear that his focus has been on ‘maladministration’ – the way the DWP managed the change process, and not the changes to state pension ages themselves .
SCROLL DOWN TO FIND OUT HOW TO ASK STEVE HIS PENSION QUESTION
Very early in the process, the Ombudsman said his role was not to override Parliament’s ability to make changes to retirement ages, and was focused solely on how this was handled.
It follows that any compensation that may arise would not involve the restoration of pensions when they would otherwise have expired.
Compensation would only be paid for what is known in jargon as “distress and inconvenience” caused by communication failures.
Do you have a question for Steve Webb? Scroll down to find out how to contact you.
In his report, the Ombudsman recommended that the DWP should:
– Apologize for your “mismanagement”;
– Offer compensation to the “sample” whistleblowers at level 4 of their usual compensation scale, equivalent to between £1,000 and £2,950 each.
Regarding the wider group of women affected – not just the small number of individual cases that the Ombudsman investigated in depth – the Ombudsman said compensation should normally be based on individual circumstances.
But she acknowledged that among the millions of women potentially affected there will be a wide diversity of individual circumstances and that something more “standardized” may therefore be necessary.
In most cases, the reported public body accepts a report from the Ombudsman and the recommendations are implemented.
Unfortunately, in this case the DWP has refused to accept the recommendations as they stand.
In response, the Ombudsman presented his report to Parliament so that MPs could ask the DWP to submit a response. At the moment we are waiting to know what it will be.
The new Pensions Minister, Emma Reynolds, has shown herself to be more willing to take part in Waspi’s campaign than her immediate predecessors and has now met with campaigners.
However, in the House of Commons earlier this month, he said: “We need It’s time to take a closer look at the Ombudsman’s report and testing before we can outline our approach.
Whether as part of the budget statement or separately, we will eventually see the DWP’s response to the Ombudsman’s report.
At this stage we don’t know what the DWP will say, but given their refusal to accept the Ombudsman’s report, it seems exceptionally unlikely that they will come forward with a generous and full compensation offer.
They may hold the line that there was no mismanagement and simply flatly refuse to take any action or even apologize.
It would then be up to MPs to decide whether to take any action to pressure the Department to reconsider.
A possible alternative is that the DWP could offer a very limited ‘hardship’ scheme, applicable only to those most negatively affected – perhaps those who had the biggest changes or the least reported.
If so, they would need to establish at that stage who would be eligible and how they could apply.
There is only so much time left before the DWP can continue to say they are “considering” this report.
While a new government will want to take time to form its own opinion and consider how the cost of any compensation plan ranks in relation to other potential spending priorities, my view is that those affected have waited long enough and should have a answer.
In the meantime, I would repeat my initial warning to be wary of anyone trying to get people to “register” for compensation and to expect official communications or advertising from the Government itself.
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