Campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality has called for a vote in parliament on compensating 1950s-born women for maladministration, after the work and pensions secretary decided to stick with his predecessor’s view not to make any payments. 

The group has launched a letter campaign demanding that the government lets MPs vote about whether to compensate older women for the Department for Work and Pensions’ late direct mailing to communicate women’s rising state pension age. More than 5,000 people have written to their MPs since the government’s latest announcement to demand a vote in parliament, according to Waspi.
  
A recent letter to the government calling for compensation was signed by 101 parliamentarians, including more than a dozen Labour MPs. 

   

 

Waspi is now also threatening fresh legal action. The government was due in court last December for a judicial review that could have forced it to reconsider Kendall’s decision, but a month before the hearing McFadden decided to retake the decision, rejecting compensation again last month, despite an ombudsman recommendation.

The group’s chair, Angela Madden, said: “The findings of the Parliamentary Ombudsman are clear. The DWP did not properly inform women of increases to their state pension age, and those affected by these failures are due compensation.”

She added that the ombudsman previously asked MPs to intervene, saying parliament has a duty to act. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman laid the report before parliament in March 2024, rather than the DWP. At the time, it said it took this “rare but necessary step” because it expected the DWP to resist the report’s findings.
   

   

“Every MP must now decide whether they stand with 1950s-born women, or with an incompetent government department that fails to own up to its own mistakes. MPs must take control of the order paper to see justice delivered. There must be a binding vote on compensation in government time so all our elected representatives can have their say,” she said.  
  
Research by Yonder, carried out for the campaign group in January, found two-thirds of 18-34 year-olds believe Waspi women should receive compensation, and more than half (53%) want parliament to hold a debate and vote on this. More than three-quarters (77%) of all respondents agreed that people affected by maladministration should receive redress without needing to take legal action.

Pat McFadden and his predecessor Liz Kendall acknowledged that there had been maladministration and apologised for this.  

However, they refused to follow a recommendation by PHSO to pay compensation at level 4 of the ombudsman’s ‘severity of injustice’ scale to those affected. Unusually, the DWP has not compensated the six people whose case studies feature in the ombudsman report either. 

The DWP claims that most women were aware of the changes, would not have read unsolicited letters and that it would be unfair on taxpayers to finance compensation that could reach over £10bn, depending on how it is applied.  

The DWP’s claim about awareness constitutes a U-turn on its own internal communications at the time. According to PHSO, the DWP said internally that “previous attempts to increase awareness of equalisation among the target group have had a limited impact”. 

DWP research from 2007 – which remained unpublished – was described internally as “depressing reading”.  

With three years to go until SPA equalisation starting, it found half of women whose state pension age had risen to between 60 and 65, and 36% of women whose state pension age had risen to 65, still thought that it was 60. During the PHSO investigation, the DWP disowned its research, but PHSO said that at the time, DWP did not question it. 

Based on the high “ignorance levels” in the 2007 research, ministers decided to go ahead with a direct mailing campaign from 2009 – the earliest possible start date, according to DWP – a mailing which had been first proposed internally in late 2006. Those affected say receiving the information earlier would have allowed them to plan for their retirement accordingly. 

On the campaign trail for the 2024 general election, senior Labour politicians said they would support 1950s-born women but went back on that promise once in power, something that has been pointed out in parliament.

The government has been quick to make disputed payments to other groups. For example, the Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme and British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme received, and distributed, a combined £3.8bn held as investment reserve for the government-backed schemes. Any future shortfall in the funds - which run a significant exposure to risk assets for closed schemes - is therefore more likely to come from taxpayers.