WASPI confirms key dates of birth for women to get DWP compensation

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) group, who are fighting for compensation over changes to the State Pension age, have explained who could benefit from any potential payouts from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

WASPI is campaigning on behalf of millions of women who say their retirement plans, finances and health were affected by a sudden increase in their pension age without proper notice.

They are now waiting for the results of an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, hoping that each person affected will be recommended to receive compensation of £10,000 or more. SNP MP Alan Brown has told the House of Commons that this would be the “most appropriate” amount for any DWP payout.

The ombudsman is due to release final reports on whether there was injustice and, if so, what financial remedy should be offered. So, who has been affected by these increases in the State Pension age?

The complaints centre around changes introduced in the 1995 Conservative Government’s State Pension Act, which raised the State Pension age for women from 60 to 65 to match men’s, and the 2011 Pension Act, which further increased the State Pension age to 66 for both sexes.

WASPI has shared who is affected and who could get compensation. They said: “Because of the way the increases were brought in, women born in the 1950s – on or after 6th April 1950 to 5th April 1960 – have been hit particularly hard. Significant changes to the age we receive our State Pension have been imposed upon us with a lack of appropriate notification, with little or no notice and much faster than we were promised some of us have been hit by more than one increase.”

In total, 3.8 million women are suffering because of this. WASPI also mentioned that since 2015, about 270,000 of these women have passed away without getting any money back for the pension changes they faced. This has helped the Treasury save over £4 billion, according to campaigners.

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WASPI notes that letters about the changes were sent out 14 years after the 1995 Pensions Act to women born from April 6, 1951, to April 5, 1953. Many of these women got a letter telling them their retirement age was going up just one year before they were supposed to get their pension. And lots of others only had two, three, four or five years’ warning.

WASPI emphasised: “Women were given as little as one year’s notice of up to a six-year increase to their State Pension age, compared to men who received six year’s notice of a one-year rise to their State Pension age. Many women report receiving no letter ever and others say letters were sent to the wrong address despite notifying the DWP of the address change.”