Government to reconsider rejection of Waspi compensation

The move – announced by secretary of state for work and pensions Pat McFadden yesterday (11 November) – is part of a long-running campaign to compensate some 3.6 million women born in the 1950s who say they were not properly informed of the rise in state pension age to bring them into line with men.

Speaking in the House of Commons, McFadden said that, as part of the legal proceedings challenging the government's decision to reject compensation last year, evidence had been cited about research findings from a 2007 evaluation of the effectiveness of automatic pension forecast letters.

He said this report had not been provided to the then work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall for consideration.

McFadden said: "In the light of this, and in the interests of fairness and transparency, I have concluded that the government should now consider this evidence. That means we will retake the decision made last December as it relates to the communications on state pension age."

The statement comes just weeks before a judicial review brought by Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) is set to be heard in the High Court in December. McFadden said the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) would inform the court of the action it intends to take.

McFadden explained the DWP would review the evidence from 1007 alongside evidence previously considered. He said he would also ask the DWP whether any further survey material or other evidence should be considered as part of this process.

But he said that, while the government would approach this in a "transparent and fair" manner "retaking this decision should not be taken as an indication that government will necessarily decide that they should award financial redress."

Waspi chair Angela Madden said the decision to retake the decision was a "major step forward".

She said: "For ten years we have been fighting for compensation and the government has fought us tooth and nail every step of the way.

"Today's announcement is a major step forward. We are now seeking legal advice as to what this means for our judicial review."

She added: "The government now knows it got it wrong and we are pleased they are now trying to do it properly. We hope they also try to do it quickly because every 13 minutes a Waspi woman dies.

"The only correct thing to do is to immediately compensate the 3.6 million Waspi women who have already waited too long for justice."

PHSO probe

The government's announcement yesterday comes after the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published its final report into the issue, following a six-year investigation, in March last year.

It found that the DWP's handling of state pension age increases involved maladministration – a failure that meant women were not adequately informed about their new state pension age, preventing them from making informed decisions about their retirement.

The PHSO recommended that the DWP pay compensation to affected women – but accepted that compensating all women born in the 1950s at the level 4 range (£1,000 to £2,950) would involve the government spending between £3.5bn and £10.5bn of public funds.

In December last year, Kendall published the government's response – accepted the PHSO's finding of maladministration and has apologising for there being a 28-month delay in writing to 1950s-born women about changes to their state pension age.

But it said evidence showed only one in four people remember receiving and reading letters that they weren't expecting and noted "the great majority" of 1950s-born women did know that the state pension age was changing

At the time it said: "For these and other reasons the government cannot justify paying compensation."

This article was originally published by Professional Pensions