Pension complaints upheld by report
Campaigners across Argyll and Bute have had their complaints about pensions upheld by the parliamentary ombudsman.
The Argyll and Isles Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) group says its years of campaigning have been vindicated by last week’s Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report which says the government failed to communicate state pension age changes for women.
Approximately 6,700 women in Argyll and Bute are affected by changes brought into force to bring female pension rules in line with those for men.
‘I have lost £50,000 due to the changes,’ explained co-founder of WASPI Argyll and Isles Ann Greer. ‘It’s not the change itself but the lack of communication which we are angry about. It’s time for the UK government to fully compensate all women affected by state pension age maladministration.’ The ombudsman’s report states: ‘We consider that, if the Department for Work and Pensions had made a reasonable decision in August 2005 and then acted promptly, it would have written to affected women to tell them about changes to their State Pension age by, at the latest, December 2006.
‘This is 28 months earlier than DWP actually wrote to them. It follows that these women should have had at least 28 months’ more individual notice of the changes than they got. The opportunity that additional notice would have given them to adjust their retirement plans was lost.’
Ann said: ‘We need action to remedy this or even more older women will be living in poverty, exacerbated by gender pay and the pension gap. We await further updates from WASPI UK and its legal team as to the next stage in the process.’