MPs are calling for “urgent action” from ministers as millions of women impacted by historic changes to the state pension age continue to be left without compensation.
Sir Stephen Timms, chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee, has written to pensions minister Mel Stride, following a committee session last week with the Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) campaign.
The chairman is pressing the Government to bring forward compensation payout proposals before the summer recess as one woman born in the 1950s “dies every 13 minutes”.
Waspi has lobbied policymakers to respond to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's (PHSO) investigation into the impact of the equalisation of the retirement age between men and women.
In a letter, Sir Stephen said: “The evidence we received indicated support for a rules-based system.
“This would be a system where payments would be adjusted within a range (based on the PHSO’s severity of injustice scale) to reflect the extent of change in the individual’s state pension age and the notice of the change which the individual received.
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“This would mean that the less notice you had of the change and the bigger the change in your state pension age , the higher the payment you would receive.
“While not perfect, the advantages of such a system are that it would be: quick to administer; applying known data to a formula to determine the amount due; and relatively inexpensive.”
In 2021, the ombudsman found the department guilty of “maladministration” in its handling of state pension age equalisation between the sexes.
Earlier this year, the PHSO suggested a Level 4 amount of compensation for the 3.8 million inadequately informed of the changes but said it was the responsibility of politicians to set the proposed amount for Waspi women.
However, the Government has yet to put forward a proposal following the report, stating it is “carefully studying” the ombudsman’s findings.
In his letter, Sir Stephen said the debate around compensation for Waspi women has “dragged on for too long”.
He added: “There is no perfect solution, but there would seem to be broad support for a rules-based system of compensation with a degree of flexibility for cases where women have experienced direct financial loss.
“While the ombudsman has put the matter in the hands of Parliament, a remedy can only happen with the support of the Government and we hope ministers will move quickly to bring forward its proposal before the summer.”
Last week, the campaign slammed the response from House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt to pleas from 1950s women for a debate to be called in Parliament, branding it “shocking”.
In March, Stride confirmed there would be a “full and proper consideration” of the PHSO’s report following its publication
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Speaking in the House of Commons at the time, Stride said there will be a full and proper consideration of the ombudsman’s report.
He said: “When considering the DWP’s actions between August 2005 and December 2007, the ombudsman came to the view that those actions resulted in 1950s-born women receiving individual notice later than they might, had different decisions been made.”
A DWP spokesperson previously told GB News: "We will consider the Ombudsman’s report and respond in due course, having cooperated fully throughout this investigation.
“The Government has always been committed to supporting all pensioners in a sustainable way that gives them a dignified retirement whilst also being fair to them and taxpayers.”
