DWP issues new update on State Pension age following campaign

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has issued a new update over a change to the State Pension age following a long campaign by activists.

WASPI (Women Against State Pensione Inequality) has been working on behalf of people who have been caught out by changes to the system. The group has been calling for a one-off compensation payment valued between £11,666 and £20,000 for everyone who was not given enough warning by the DWP that the State Pension age was going up from 60 to 66.

The change to the pension age for women was legislated in 1995, however, the change wasn't discussed with those affected until 2012. The issue led to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) to find the DWP guilty of maladministration.

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It said that "the opportunity that additional notice would have given them to adjust their retirement plans was lost." Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, questioned the Secretary of State for WOrk and Pensions what exact discussion took place with the ombudsman when the DWP planned to publish its stage to report on complaints surrounding the awareness of the changes.

Lisa Nandy, Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, also asked by the DWP was not personally meeting with WASPI to discuss the issue. Pensions Minister Guy Opperman responded: "State Pension age issues have been debated extensively in the House over many years, and subsequently litigated in the highest courts in the land.

"The PHSO Ombudsman’s investigation into communication of changes to women's State Pension is ongoing; section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act