MPs have been quizzing officials at the Department for Work and Pensions this morning about “how seriously the department is tackling failings at the heart of the Waspi women scandal”. The hearing comes as the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman raised “serious concerns” about the DWP stopping an action plan to learn from past communications failures.

The Work and Pensions Committee has been questioning senior civil servants on why they stopped work on a plan to avoid future state pension scandals like the one affecting 1950s-born women. 

In late 2024, former work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall declined to follow PHSO's recommendation to pay compensation for the DWP's failure to communicate a rise in women’s state pension age early enough. However, at the time she promised that “all lessons” would be learnt and an “action plan” put in place to ensure the department will not repeat its mistakes. 

Work on this action plan was, however, paused in November last year, when – shortly before a court hearing in a judicial review case brought by Women Against State Pension Inequality – Kendall’s successor Pat McFadden unexpectedly announced the DWP would “retake” the compensation decision.

DWP permanent secretary Sir Peter Schofield argued that the action plan had to be stopped because it flowed from Kendall’s decision, and McFadden was now reviewing this decision.

The committee seemed unconvinced, not least because a year has now passed since Kendall made the commitment. Both LibDem MP John Milne and Labour's Lee Barron questioned whether the ‘retaking’ of the compensation decision really meant that the action plan should be stopped. 

“Lessons still need to be learnt” from how the scandal happened, said Barron. 

In response, Sir Peter claimed there was “a difference between ‘action’ and the ‘action plan’” committed by Kendall. 

He argued that the DWP is taking action, listing several campaigns by the department to make people aware of their state pension age and entitlement, and added that “the pensions dashboard, I think, is going to make a massive difference”. 

The department’s top civil servant showed surprise about PHSO’s letter to the committee chair, in which ombudsman Paula Sussex raised concerns that the DWP may be deprioritising learning from the scandal. 

In her letter sent to Debbie Abrahams on 8 January, Sussex said despite requests for regular updates, “no written drafts have been provided to my office for review” since two workshops were held in April and June last year. Work on the action plan was then paused by the DWP in November. 

“I expressed concerns about this decision and requested that I view a draft hard copy of the plan, to give me some assurance that the work to prepare it had taken place. I was not given any further information on when it would be shared formally for comment and review,” she wrote. 

Sussex argued that taking action to address the DWP’s acknowledged failings should not depend on any decision about financial compensation and is planning to personally deliver a series of leadership workshops in early 2026 “to support DWP to develop a culture that welcomes and learns from complaints”. 

The lessons DWP can learn from its state pension age comms blunder will be crucial, as further increases are scheduled for both women and men. Under current legislation, the state pension age is going up from 66 to 67 this year, and to 68 in 2044-46. 

In the meantime, the third state pension age review was kicked off with a call for evidence last August. Recent governments have relied on increases to the state pension age to help offset the fast-growing cost of the benefit. Affordability of the state pension has become a concern because of an ageing population and the fact the state pension is uprated by the highest of inflation, earnings or 2.5%, a system the government has pledged to keep in place. 

Recent increases in the age at which people can start to receive the state pension have led to a sharp uptick in poverty rates among people just under retirement age, with the Work and Pensions Committee launching an inquiry into the issue last November. 

Aside from how to improve communications about state pension age, MPs have also been probing officials about further issues, such as underpayments to women eligible for home responsibility pension and the low uptake of a programme to remedy this, the carers’ allowance scandal including the treatment of claimants, as well as fraud and error figures.