Millions of WASPI women could see State Pension age compensation proposal before end of July

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Sir Stephen Timms, chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee, has written to Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, following an oral evidence session last week with the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) Campaign and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) on the findings in its final report into changes made to the State Pension age for millions of women born in the 1950s.After a six-year investigation, the PHSO published its final report on March 21 which said that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to adequately communicate changes to women’s State Pension age, and those affected are owed compensation.

As a result of its findings, the Ombudsman has asked Parliament to intervene and “act swiftly” to make sure a compensation scheme is established.In the letter, the chair of the group of cross-party MPs urges the UK Government to “bring forward proposals for a remedy by the summer recess.” Parliament is set to rise for the summer break on July 23.The letter states: “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 recommended compensation equivalent to Level 4 on its banding scale - between £1,000 and £2,950, however, the WASPI Campaign and some