Campaigners for women impacted by changes to the pension age could be receiving a £10,000 compensation payout.
The WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaign has lobbied politicians to address the historic injustice millions faced after the women’s page age threshold was raised from 60 to 65, to be in line with men. Women born on or after April 6, 1950 “had their retirement dreams shattered” after the state age was equalised, the group’s chair Angela Madden said.
Around 3.6 million women born up until March 1950 were not informed of the changes until 2009 – completely altering their retirement plans.
The state pension has since been raised again, from 65 to 66, with another hike expected between 2026 and 2028.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was charged with “maladministration” by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) inquiry over the lack of information.
Ms Madden told GB News older women had been “cancelled” by the Government.
She added she was “delighted” that MPs are taking their case seriously.
She said: “All WASPI women have suffered years of uncertainty, stress caused by financial insecurity and depression caused by being ‘cancelled’ by the very Government purporting to represent them.
“[Despite] the knowledge they did everything right, these women had their retirement plans shattered by an administration that didn’t bother to tell them that their state pension age had been increased by a massive six years in one decade.”
The PHSO inquiry was presented with evidence from the All Party Parliamentary Group on State Pension Inequality for Women which concluded the women should be given level six compensation – which starts at £10,000.
The WASPI chair said this should be paid alongside any material or financial losses.
Scottish National Party MP Alan Brown has said that he believes £10,000 would be the “most appropriate” payout for each person affected.
Since 2015, WASPI says around 270,000 of the women affected have died without getting any compensation for the pension changes they went through. This has saved the Treasury a whopping £4billion, say the campaigners.
WASPI also points out that it took 14 years after the 1995 Pensions Act for letters about the changes to start reaching women born between April 6, 1951, and April 5, 1953.
Some of these women only got a letter telling them their retirement age was going up just one year before they were meant to retire, while others had only two, three, four or five years’ notice.
A DWP spokesperson said: “The Government decided over 25 years ago that 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.”
