Campaigning women in the Portsmouth area demand compensation from government

The Solent Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) group is making demands following the release of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) report, which concluded the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to act on research findings to communicate with those affected by the changes in state pension age.

As part of the report it said: ‘Despite having identified there was more it could do, DWP failed to use feedback to improve service design and deliver.’

Shelagh Simmons, co-ordinator of Solent Waspi group, said: ‘Today’s provisional findings reinforce what we, unfortunately, knew all along; that the DWP failed to adequately inform 3.8 million 1950s born women that their state pension age would be increasing.

‘We have been tirelessly campaigning on this issue since 2015 and have been repeatedly ignored and dismissed by the Government. The Government can no longer cover up its failings. It’s time, once and for all, to resolve this issue.’

Waspi women campaign for fair transitional arrangements for women born in the 1950s who have had as much as six years added to their state pension age with little, or no, notice.

It is thought that more than 116,000 women in Hampshire have been hit by the changes to pension age.

The PHSO began its investigation into six sample cases in October 2018. The investigation was suspended in December 2018 due to the judicial review pursued by another group but was resumed in January 2020 after the judicial review ruled in the government’s favour.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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