Sir Stephen Timms, chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee, has written to Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride in response to an oral evidence session that took place last week with the WASPI women Campaign and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) on the results of its final report into changes to the State Pension age for millions of women born in the 1950s.
WASPI Women Await Parliament's Response to Compensation Call Amid PHSO Report
Following a six-year investigation, the PHSO issued its final report on March 21, stating that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to appropriately communicate changes to WASPI women's State Pension age, and individuals affected are entitled to compensation.
As a result of its findings, the Ombudsman has requested that Parliament intervene and "act swiftly" to ensure that a compensation scheme is established.
In the letter, the chair of the cross-party MPs' group invites the UK government to "bring forward proposals for a remedy by the summer recess." Parliament will convene for the summer recess on July 23.
The letter includes: “As you are aware, the PHSO laid its report before Parliament on March 21 2024, asking Parliament to ‘identify an appropriate mechanism for providing remedy’ for women born in the 1950s who have suffered injustice because of DWP’s maladministration in its communication of increases in their State Pension Age (SPA) legislated for in the Pensions Act 1995.
“In a one-off evidence session on the issue on May 7, we were reminded of the need for urgent action, given that the ombudsman started to look at this issue in 2018 and that every 13 minutes a woman born in the 1950s dies.”
The PHSO suggested compensation similar to Level 4 on its banding scale, which ranges between £1,000 and £2,950; however, the WASPI Campaign and certain MPS, like the SNP's Alan Brown, want to see the highest level of compensation paid (Level 6), which begins at £10,000.
However, the Labour MP stated that the Committee has “not sought to question the PHSO’s proposal for compensation at level 4, but instead have focused on what a remedy might look like”.
Sir Stephen went on to say: “The evidence we received indicated support for a rules-based system. This would be a system where payments would be adjusted within a range (based on the PHSO’s severity of injustice scale) to reflect the extent of change in the individual’s state pension age and the notice of the change which the individual received.
“This would mean that the less notice you had of the change and the bigger the change in your SPA, the higher the payment you would receive.
“While not perfect, the advantages of such a system are that it would be: quick to administer; applying known data to a formula to determine the amount due; and relatively inexpensive.”
WASPI Women's Compensation: MPs Urge Government Action Before Summer Recess
The letter also advocated some flexibility in allowing persons to make the argument individually, after receiving payment under the rules-based system, that they suffered direct financial loss and are entitled to a higher level of compensation.
The letter cited information from Angela Madden, head of the WASPI women Campaign. She previously told the Committee that women's divorce settlements were based on a pension age of 60, which meant they received less money.
The letter added: “Implementing a remedy will need parliamentary time, financial resources, and the data and technical systems only available to your department.
“It cannot happen without Government support. We would ask you to bring forward proposals for a remedy by the summer recess.”
Speaking about the letter, Sir Stephen said: “The debate over the impact of the DWP’s failure to communicate increases in the women’s state pension age has dragged on for too long and it is time the Government took action to resolve the issue.
“There is no perfect solution, but there would seem to be broad support for a rules-based system of compensation with a degree of flexibility for cases where women have experienced direct financial loss.
“While the ombudsman has put the matter in the hands of Parliament, a remedy can only happen with the support of the Government and we hope ministers will move quickly to bring forward its proposal before the summer.”