The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) has launched a fundraiser to finance a judicial review of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s second report.
Waspi are a group of women born in the 1950s, fighting for compensation for maladministration by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Many of the women were already 58 when the DWP changed rules around pensions stating that they could not retire and draw a pension at 60 but must instead wait until 66.
By then, some women had taken life-changing decisions to leave work, often taking up caring responsibilities for their elderly parents, grandchildren or ill partners.
Waspi said its surveys show that a third of these women are now in debt, with some having to sell their homes to survive.
The organisation put together a mass complaint to the DWP and then to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman asking them to investigate.
Although the ombudsman is not a court, it can recommend compensation where maladministration (defective decision making by government departments) causes injustice.
The initial investigation report, published in 2021, found clear maladministration in the communication of pensions law changes.
Since then, the ombudsman has completed a second report, stating:
- there was maladministration in DWP's communication about national insurance qualifying years
- there was maladministration in DWP's complaint handling
- maladministration in DWP's communication about state pension age and about national insurance qualifying years, and its complaint handling did not lead to all the injustices claimed
However, Waspi believes the ombudsman is wrong.
The organisation said it has taken legal advice from specialist barristers and solicitors.
“Regrettably, we have concluded that the ombudsman is seriously mistaken about the injustice Waspi women have suffered,” it said.
Its argument, in summary, is that the first report concluded clear letters about the changes to their state pension age should have been sent from December 2006.
“If that had happened, most women would have known about the changes by 2009,” it wrote.
However, it said the ombudsman appears to believe that most women would not have received those letters until much later and by then it would have been too late for most of them to make different choices and protect themselves financially.
“In other words, we disagree profoundly with the ombudsman about the impact the DWP's maladministration has had on Waspi women.
“We also have a very different view from the ombudsman about what women should have to do to prove that they suffered financial losses because of the DWP's maladministration.”
Waspi believes the ombudsman's “mistaken approach to injustice” could mean many women - perhaps hundreds of thousands - may receive less compensation than they otherwise would.
But a PHSO spokesperson said: “We are now considering what action DWP should take to put right the injustice we have found.
“We have shared provisional views with complainants, their MPs and DWP. Once we have considered further evidence we will publish a full report on our findings.”
Waspi said it “strongly believes” the ombudsman must reach a legally correct decision on the "injustice".
Since there is no appeal against an ombudsman decision, the only way forward now is to ask the High Court for a judicial review of the second report.
