Victory for WASPI women as ombudsman admits report was flawed
The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaign has scored a major victory in its fight to win compensation for 1950s-born women affected by short notice changes to their state pension age after Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) conceded its earlier report was flawed.
The surprising admission came after thousands of affected women raised £120,000 to launch a judicial review in the High Court to challenge a PHSO report that claimed “there is too much we cannot now know about what would have happened if Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had written to women about the 1995 Pensions Act sooner” and that none of a group of ‘sample complainants’ had suffered injustice in the form of financial losses, or loss of opportunities, because of DWP maladministration.
WASPI lawyers successfully showed that - if DWP had acted properly - 1950s-born women could have received letters two years earlier than the PHSO assumed which would have allowed them to make alternative provision with regards to their state pension.
WASPI chairman Angela Madden described the victory as a milestone on the long journey to justice.
An order submitted to the High Court for approval will now see crucial parts of the Ombudsman’s report quashed and reconsidered, resulting in the report being rewritten. The next report, which describes the level of compensation women should get, will also be rewritten.
WASPI chairwoman Angela Madden said: “This is a real milestone on our very long journey to justice. The PHSO’s stage two conclusions were clearly irrational and had to be challenged. We are delighted he has conceded on all the material points in our legal argument and will now reconsider his findings. Such a big victory would not have been possible without the support of thousands of ordinary women who dug deep to fund our case. The PHSO could see that we would not just accept flawed conclusions and quietly go away.
“Now we call on all political parties to commit to fast, fair compensation for WASPI women in their manifestos at the next election. With one of our number dying every 13 minutes, there’s not a second to waste in recognising the financial loss, hardship and trauma DWP’s incompetence has caused.”