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Waspi women born in the 1950s will not receive any compensation from the Labor Government.
The Department for Work and Pensions has rejected the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s recommendation to pay between £1,000 and £2,950 to those affected.
The Ombudsman, who said this would cost between £3.5 and £10.5 billion if all women born in the 1950s were paid, found in a report earlier this year that the Government failed to report appropriately to women that their state pension age had been delayed.
Many women born in the 1950s have faced difficulties as they wait longer than expected to receive the state pension – the age is now 66 for both women and men.
The Women Against Inequality in State Pensions or Waspi campaign argued that there were significant failings in the way the increase in the state pension age was communicated.
They also accelerated and scheduled two raises in quick succession in 2018 and 2020, giving them little notice to fill the gap in their retirement finances.
Waspi’s campaign argued there were major flaws in the way the increase in women’s state pension age was communicated.
Angela Madden, chair of the Waspi campaign, says: ‘The Government has today taken an unprecedented political decision by ignoring the clear recommendations of an independent watchdog which ordered ministers to urgently compensate Waspi women nine months ago.
“This is a bizarre and totally unjustified move that will leave everyone wondering what the point of an Ombudsman is if ministers can simply ignore his decisions.
“It seems like a decision that would make the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump blush.
‘The idea that an “action plan” to avoid such mistakes in the future should be the result of a six-year investigation by the Ombudsman is an insult to both women and the PHSO process.
‘An overwhelming majority of MPs back Waspi’s calls for fair compensation and all options remain on the table. Parliament must now look for an alternative mechanism to include this issue in the order paper so that justice can be done.’
Liberal Democrat Work and Pensions Party Spokesperson, Steve Darling MP. says: ‘Today is a day of shame for the government.
‘The new government has turned its back on millions of women of retirement age who were wronged through no fault of their own, ignoring the recommendations of the independent Ombudsman, and that is frankly shameful.
‘The Conservative Party left our economy in ruins, but asking damaged pensioners to pay the price for their mismanagement is simply wrong.
‘For years, Liberal Democrats have pressured the government to fairly compensate Waspi women, in line with the Ombudsman’s recommendations. Today’s cruel decision cannot be allowed to stand and we will put pressure on ministers to give those affected the fair treatment they deserve.’
The Steve Webb verdict: a worrying precedent
Steve Webb, former Pensions Minister and now a partner at LCP, says: ‘The Government’s handling of this issue sets an extremely worrying precedent.
‘If it is acceptable for a department to completely reject the conclusions of a report by the independent Parliamentary Ombudsman, this strikes a blow to the heart of the entire process.
“There is a risk that governments will now feel encouraged to ‘pick and choose’ when faced with a critical Ombudsman report, effectively setting themselves up as judge and party.”
Webb, This is Money’s retirement columnist, adds: ‘Even if the government felt it could not afford to implement the recommendations in full, there were many options that would have offered some remedy to those worst affected.
“The outright rejection of the Ombudsman’s report raises much broader issues than compensation for changes to the retirement age, and parliamentarians should not take this decision idly.”
Why is there controversy over raising the state pension age for women?
In 1995 plans were first outlined to equalize the state pension age for men and women.
The then Conservative Government expressed its intention to gradually raise the retirement age for women to 65 years between 2010 and 2020.
This was followed in 2007 by a Labor announcement that both men and women would see their retirement age rise to 66 between 2024 and 2026.
But in 2011, Chancellor George Osborne brought forward the timing of both changes to 2018 and 2020 respectively, affecting women particularly because their increases came earlier than expected and in quick succession.
Initially, the reform included a maximum limit of two additional years of waiting to receive a state pension, but protests led to the limit being reduced to 18 months.
Some 2.6 million women received a five-year notice of delay in their retirement age.
The Women Against State Pension Inequality or Waspi campaign has fought for measures to cushion the financial blow and urged women to complain first to the DWP itself and then to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
A separate group, BackTo60, brought a legal challenge, but it was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in September 2020.
Waspi said the courts could not make a judgment on maladministration because that was the role of the Ombudsman.
The end of the court case freed the Parliamentary Ombudsman to examine women’s complaints, and its 2021 report accused the Government of “maladministration” over delays in informing women about the changes.
In a second report in March this year, she called on the Government to compensate women for failing to properly inform them that their state pension age had been delayed.