DWP urged to do the ‘right thing’ for WASPI women over State Pension age compensation

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Two Scottish MPs have urged the UK Government not to make the same mistake with future State Pension age change communication that has been felt by millions of women born in the 1950s.

Some 3.8 million women across Great Britain missed out on State Pension payments due to the change in retirement age from 60 to 65 between 2016 and 2018 and then to 66, for both men and women in October, 2020.In July 2021, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) ruled the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to communicate the changes with enough urgency, finding it guilty of maladministration, and is currently investigating the harm caused.Changes to the State Pension age, which were legislated for in 1995, were not communicated through targeted letters to the affected women until 2008, leading the PHSO to find that "the opportunity that additional notice would have given them to adjust their retirement plans was lost”.During a debate in the House of Commons around reports that the State Pension age will rise to 68 earlier than planned, the SNP’s Patricia Gibson urged the UK Government to give those women “the compensation that is their right”.The North Ayrshire and Arran MP said: “It is bad enough that the State Pension age is due to rise again from 66 to 67 by 2028.

It is even worse that the women born in the 1950s had their State Pension age increased with little or no notice, a move that has robbed them of tens of thousands of pounds of their hard-earned and expected State Pension, throwing many of them into deep poverty and unnecessary hardship.“The Minister may say that no final decision has been taken, but how can anyone, having witnessed how women born in the 1950s have been treated, have any real faith that