Most Waspi women still won’t receive any compensation despite critical report
Many of the women affected by changes to the state pension age will still miss out on compensation despite a damning report into government failures, experts have warned.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) said the Waspi women are owed money, and has suggested compensation payments of up to £2,950.
The watchdog found that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to properly inform women born in the 50s that the state pension age would be pushed up from 60 to 65, and later to 66.
However, the DWP is still refusing to accept the ombudsman’s findings, and the Government has not yet committed to offering any compensation.
The PHSO condemned the DWP’s stance as “unacceptable”, and said it was now up to Parliament to vote for a compensation scheme to provide “remedy” to affected women. Compensating all 3.6 million affected women with £2,950 would cost the Government up to £10.5bn, the ombudsman said.
But this amount falls far short of what the Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign group wants, having called for at least £10,000 each.
Pension experts warned that compensating all women at such a level would prove too expensive.
“There will be disappointment,” said former pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann.
“The report doesn’t suggest to me that everybody is going to get a lot of money. There should be a scheme, but I can’t imagine it will pay out to all those affected. It’s up to Parliament now.”
The Conservative peer said the ombudsman’s report was “damning” but that the lack of a firm recommendation from the PHSO for a blanket compensation meant that Parliament may only approve “a scheme to claim compensation on a case-by-case basis”.
She believed the recommended payments of up to £2,950 means any Wapsi women who are eventually compensated would likely not get as much £10,000.
The ombudsman’s report said that based on a test group of six complainants’ cases, it would recommend a level 4 compensation of between £1,000 and £2,950 to reflect a “significant and/or lasting injustice”.
The PHSO stopped short of suggesting a particular compensation scheme to MPs, but said Parliament may want to consider “a mechanism for assessing individual claims of injustice”.
It added: “Or it may consider a flat-rate payment would deliver more efficient resolution, recognising that will inevitably mean some women being paid more or less compensation than they otherwise would.”
The watchdog also noted that compensating all women born in the 1950s at the level 4 range “would involve spending between around £3.5bn and £10.5bn of public funds, though we understand not all of them will have suffered injustice”.
Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb said the Government would be forced to back down and come up with some form of “redress scheme” for the Wapsi women worst affected by pension age changes.
“There is no chance that this position will hold,” said Sir Steve, now a partner at pensions consultants LCP.
But he warned that a scheme would almost certainly by “highly targeted”, rather than applying to all 3.6 million women affected by the state pension age changes.
He predicted that it would probably apply to those who can show they suffered “life-changing increases in their state pension age” because of DWP failures.
Angela Madden, chair of the Waspi campaign group, said level 6 compensation of £10,000 each would “more clearly and reasonably recognise the injustice and loss of opportunities suffered”. She said it was now up to the politicians to “put their money where their mouth is”.
Rishi Sunak’s Government has been reluctant to promise any compensation, while Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is wary of making any new spending commitments ahead of this year’s general election.
Senior Tory MP Peter Aldous, the vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Waspi issue, backed the idea of £10,000 for all women affected.
Labour MP John McDonnell, former shadow chancellor, also backed higher awards. He said the suggested compensation of only up to £2,950 “will come as a bitter disappointment to many of these women who will feel betrayed”.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK said the DWP’s refusal to pay Waspi women was “astonishing” and said it was “unjust for their redress to be delayed any longer”.
Tim Middleton, policy director at the Pension Management Institute (PMI) said the DWP’s stance was “cause for concern” – urging the Government to make sure “that those are entitled to compensation are not required to wait any longer.”
The DWP did not deny that it was refusing to accept the findings or offer any compensation.
A spokesperson for the department said: “We will consider the ombudsman’s report and respond in due course, having co-operated fully throughout this investigation.”
