Parliamentary Ombudsman report: DWP has not accepted its recommendations, and the new Government is considering its response
Do Waspi women have to register in any way to stand a chance of getting some compensation?
Steve Webb replies: I’m happy to give an update on where things are up to with regard to the position of women affected by lack of notice of changes to their state pension age.
But right at the outset I should stress that as things stand there is no compensation scheme and nothing to ‘register’ for.
If you are asked to put your details into a website it may well be a scam, as we warned earlier this year after being alerted by the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign.
The most important development in this whole issue was the publication of a report by the Parliamentary Ombudsman in March 2024 which found that ‘thousands of women may have been affected by DWP’s failure to adequately inform them that the State Pension age had changed’.
Note that the Ombudsman has always made it clear that its focus has been on ‘maladministration’ – the way the process of change was administered by DWP, and not the changes to state pension ages in themselves.
SCROLL DOWN TO FIND OUT HOW TO ASK STEVE YOUR PENSION QUESTION
Very early on in the process, the Ombudsman said that its role was not to over-ride the ability of Parliament to make changes in pension ages, and its focus was purely on how this was handled.
It follows from this that any compensation which may arise would not involve reinstating pensions from when they would otherwise have fallen due.
Compensation would only be payable for what is known in the jargon as ‘distress and inconvenience’ caused by the failures in communication.
Got a question for Steve Webb? Scroll down to find out how to contact him
In its report, the Ombudsman recommended that the DWP should:
– Apologise for its ‘maladministration’;
– Offer compensation to the ‘sample’ complainants at level 4 on its usual compensation scale – equivalent to between £1,000 and £2,950 each.
In terms of the wider group of women affected – not just the small number of individual cases which the Ombudsman investigated in depth – the Ombudsman said that compensation should normally be based on individual circumstances.
But it recognised that amongst the millions of women potentially affected there will be a wide diversity of individual circumstances and that therefore something more ‘standardised’ might be needed.
In most cases, a report by the Ombudsman is accepted by the public body which is being complained against and the recommendations are implemented.
Unfortunately, in this case the DWP has refused to accept the recommendations as they stand.
In response, the Ombudsman laid its report before Parliament so that MPs could call on DWP to come up with a response. At the moment we are waiting to hear what that will be.
The new Pensions Minister, Emma Reynolds, has been more willing to engage with the Waspi campaign than her immediate predecessors and has now had a meeting with campaigners.
However, in the House of Commons earlier this month, she said: ‘We do need time to carefully consider the Ombudsman’s report and evidence before we can outline our approach.’
Whether this will be as part of the Budget statement or separately, we will eventually see the DWP response to the Ombudsman’s report.
At this stage we do not know what the DWP will say, but given their refusal to accept the Ombudsman’s report, it seems exceptionally unlikely that they will come up with a generous and comprehensive compensation offer.
It is possible that they will hold the line that there was no maladministration and will simply refuse outright to take any action or even to apologise.
It would then be up to MPs to decide whether to take any action to press the Department to reconsider.
A possible alternative is that the DWP might offer a very limited ‘hardship’ scheme, applicable only to those most adversely affected – perhaps those who had the largest changes or the least notice.
If so, they would have to set out at that stage who would be eligible and how they could apply.
There is only so long that the DWP can go on saying that they are ‘considering’ this report.
Whilst a new government will want to take time to form its own view, and to consider how the cost of any compensation scheme ranks relative to other potential spending priorities, my view is that those affected have now waited long enough and should have an answer.
In the meantime, I would repeat my warning at the start to be wary of anyone attempting to get people to ‘register’ for compensation and to await official communications or publicity from the Government itself.
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