WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaigners represent some 3.8 million women born in the 1950s who saw their state pension age change from the traditional 60 they had expected, to 65 and subsequently to 66.
Thousands of women claim they have been negatively affected by this change due to the lack of notice they were given by the Government to adequately plan for their retirement.
A previous ruling from the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman found the DWP should have written individual letters to those affected 28 months before it did in fact send them out.
A second stage of the Ombudsman’s investigation has been completed which also found the DWP guilty of maladministration, but this concluded the department’s actions did not result in all the injustices claimed.
Now the campaigners are awaiting the Ombudsman’s ruling about what should be done to rectify the situation.
A survey commissioned by the WASPI campaign, suggests that almost 30 percent of affected women had already left work by the time they found out their state pension age had moved- many of whom were unable to find another job.
Christine Smith, coordinator of the Newcastle Wear and Tees WASPI Group is among the women who made life-changing decisions because they did not know the change was coming.
The 67-year-old explained to Chronicle Live that she was nearly 60 when she made the decision to give up work as her elderly mother and parents-in-law needed more attention that she couldn’t give them working 12-hour shifts.
She made the arrangements to retire and only found out a few months beforehand that she would not get her pension until much later. However, if she changed her mind, it would have meant putting her parents into care.
She said: “Some women have family first and made decisions assuming they would have a pension income. It is devastating to some in our group.”
Ms Smith continued: “Significant changes to the age we receive our state pension have been imposed upon us with a lack of appropriate notification, with little or no notice and much faster than we were promised.
“Some of us have been hit by more than one increase. As a result, hundreds of thousands of us are suffering financial hardship, with not enough time to re-plan for our retirement.”
The WASPI campaign is about the lack of communication which has “blighted millions of women’s lives”. The women are calling for compensation from the Government.
The retired nurse explained there are many women in the North East suffering real hardship through no fault of their own. They have used up all their savings bridging the gap and now they are faced with trying to find zero-hours contract jobs in their 60s.
She explained more than three-quarters of these women would use the money to pay off debts they have accrued bridging the gap between when they expected their pension and when they started to get it.
She added: “Some women have also been hit twice. The pension age was put up to 65 in 1995 and again to 66 in 2021.
“Six years is a long time to manage when you are not getting money you were expecting.”
With the campaigners now awaiting a ruling about what should be done to rectify the issue, they have sent the Ombudsman a list of 10 steps about how they think the probe should proceed.
Christine and her husband Bill, said the 10-point plan to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) is a bid to resolve their fight with the DWP over state pension age changes.
The 10 steps include:
- Complete the investigation with a sense of urgency
- Clearly and correctly identify when maladministration began
- Clearly and correctly identify when maladministration ended
- Reach a sound conclusion on what would have happened if women had been correctly notified of the changes to their state pension age
- Make realistic findings on direct financial losses
- Look at the lost opportunities for women to make different financial decisions
- Properly consider the distress, anger and hurt of those affected
- Take account of varying impacts based on circumstances
- Reach conclusions in a fair manner including consultation with WASPI
- Make compensation recommendations that are fair, fast and straightforward.
The WASPI campaigners have urged its supporters to write to their MPs with the list of 10 demands.
A DWP spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “The Government decided over 25 years ago it was going to make the state pension age the same for men and women.
“Both the High Court and Court of Appeal have supported the actions of the DWP under successive governments dating back to 1995 and the Supreme Court refused the claimants permission to appeal.”
