Women affected by change in state pension age ‘are owed compensation’, report finds
A long-awaited report on how women born in the 1950s were affected by increases to their retirement age has recommended they are owed compensation.
An investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) found that thousands of women may have been adversely impacted by the government’s failure to adequately inform them of the change.
Politics Live: Autumn timeframe’ for election, minister says
To date, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has not acknowledged its failings or put things right for those women, the watchdog said.
The ombudsman noted that the department has indicated it won’t comply with the findings and called on parliament to intervene.
PHSO chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath, said: ”The UK’s national ombudsman has made a finding of failings by DWP in this case and has ruled that the women affected are owed compensation.
“DWP has clearly indicated that it will refuse to comply. This is unacceptable. The department must do the right thing and it must be held to account for failure to do so. ”
Ms Hilsenrath said that given the ombudsman’s “significant concerns” that the DWP won’t act on its findings, “we have proactively asked parliament to intervene and hold the department to account”.
“Parliament now needs to act swiftly, and make sure a compensation scheme is established. We think this will provide women with the quickest route to remedy.”
The finding follows a long-running campaign by the Women Against State Pension Inequality – often known as WASPI women.
The group say millions suffered financially as they were not given sufficient warning to prepare for the change to their retirement age.
The ombudsman’s report suggested that, in the sample cases it has seen, women should receive compensation of between £1,000 and £2,95 – Level 4 on the compensation scale.
However, the findings are not legally binding.
WASPI women ‘very disappointed’ in DWP
Angela Madden, chair of WASPI, told Sky News she wanted to see the government grant Level 6 compensation of £10,000 or more.
While this would cost the exchequer around £36bn, she said the government “have saved £181bn by increasing the state pension age” for women.
“Had they told us, when they first decided in 1995 this was going to happen, we would have had 15 years notice,” she said.
“I got a letter in March 2012, two years before I expected to retire, and that letter told me I wasn’t getting my state pension until March 2020. I was absolutely devastated.
I’d already given up work to spend time with my then ailing mother. I couldn’t unmake that decision and had Ihad the right information. I wouldn’t have made that decision.”
She added that she is “very disappointed in the DWP” and called on whoever wins the next election to act swiftly on compensation.
“It needs to happen soon as more than 270,000 women have died since we started this campaign”, she said.
WASPI women argue millions suffered financially because they didn’t know about the changes
Why was the sate pension age changed for women?
The state pension age was aligned to match men in a move praised for improving gender equality.
For decades, men had retired at 65 while women had retired at 60.
A law was passed in 1995 setting out a timetable to eventually raise the retirement age for women so it would match the age for men.
Read More:
Generation of women in debt after state pension fallout
The original plan was to phase in the change over a 10-year period between 2010 and 2020 to allow people sufficient time to plan ahead.
However, in 2011 the coalition government accelerated the shift to reduce costs, with the increase in retirement age brought forward to 2018.
WASPI agrees with the equalisation of ages, but says they were not properly informed of the changes, giving them insufficient time to prepare or make other financial arrangements.
The ombudsman investigated complaints that, since 1995, the DWP has failed to provide accurate, adequate and timely information about areas of state pension reform.
The ombudsman published stage one of its investigation in July 2021, which found failings in the way the department communicated changes to women’s state pension age.
The DWP’s handling of the pension age changes meant some women lost opportunities to make informed decisions about their finances and diminished their sense of personal autonomy and financial control, the ombudsman said.
Liberal Democrat Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain said WASPI women have “tirelessly campaigned for justice after being left out of pocket”.
She added: “Liberal Democrats have long supported WASPI in their campaign and it is now up to this Conservative government to come forward with a plan to get these women the compensation they are owed.”
In 2019, nine men were jailed for raping and abusing two teenage girls living in a children’s home in Bradford.
One of the victims, Fiona Goddard, says more than 50 men raped her.
When the government began to talk about offering councils money for local inquiries, Fiona hoped Bradford would be one of the first to take up the offer. But there didn’t seem to be much enthusiasm.
The council was quick to point out that there had already been an independent case review into Fiona’s case, along with four other victims.
This, then, was Fiona’s first reasoning for wanting a national inquiry: The council felt it had done all that needed to be done. Fiona didn’t.
The Independent review, published in July 2021, found that while in the children’s home, Fiona “went missing almost on a daily basis”. The police attitude was that she could look after herself – she was “street-wise”.
There was “agreement by all agencies that Fiona was either at risk of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) or actively being sexually abused and exploited”. But “this was not addressed by any single agency”.
And “when Fiona became pregnant at the age of 15, there was little curiosity or enquiry who the father was”.
So, obvious failings were discovered.
The predictable response was that lessons had been learned and new processes put in place. But no one seemed to be held accountable.
Grooming gangs timeline: What happened, what inquiries there were and how Starmer was involved
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Grooming gangs: What happened?
Ms Goddard told Sky News: “In my serious case review she [Jane Booth, the independent chair] found seven incidences at least, in them records that she found, of them not reporting sexual abuse or rape or assault, from as young as eight years old, and one of the incidences I literally turned up covered in blood and they didn’t report it.
“That is not just misunderstanding a crime, that is making intentional decisions not to report the sexual abuse of a child.”
She adds: “Let’s not forget, these people still work within social services and the police force.”
Not only did this Independent review not satisfy Fiona, but it also didn’t begin to reflect the levels and scale of abuse Fiona had experienced outside of Bradford.
‘I literally turned up covered in blood and they didn’t report it,’ Fiona says
Asked where she was trafficked to, Fiona rattles off a list of cities.
“Blackburn, Rotherham, Rochdale, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Oldham – never Telford, I’d never even heard of Telford until it all came out if I’m honest – Nottingham, Oxford.”
Then she remembers she didn’t go to Oxford – men from Oxford came to her – but the point is made.
Local enquiries can’t possibly begin to explore the networks of men who traffic women, often down routes of drug trafficking being done by the same gangs.
Bradford Council told Sky News it contributed to the national Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and published more than 70 reports where child sexual exploitation was discussed and has implemented findings from the independent local review which included Fiona’s case.
Fiona believes there are numerous connections leading back to Bradford – but victims from each city often believe their abusers are at the centre of it.
We’ve spoken to grooming victims across the country, and in 2022, a case was reopened in Humberside after a Sky News investigation, where we found diary entries, texts, photos, and school reports all indicating that teenage victims had been abused.
Read more on this story:
Telford child abuse victims speak out
What we know about grooming gangs, from the data
The women who blew whistle on Rotherham
One of them was “Anna”, who also wants a national inquiry. She believes there is a national pattern of police forces not believing victims or even criminalising them instead.
Obtaining her own police records using a Subject Access Request (SAR), Anna found officers’ attitudes towards her were similar to what we heard with Fiona in Bradford, blaming her abuse and injuries on “lifestyle choices of her own”.
Anna said: “Every time I look at my Subject Access Request, I still think it’s shocking.
“It was the same sort of terminology – lifestyle choices, liar, attention seeker, and the majority of it was negative.
“It was really rare that I’d come across something where they were actually listening or they were concerned.”
Humberside Police told us: “As the investigation is active, it is imperative we protect its integrity; as such are unable to comment on aspects of the investigation as this could impact or jeopardise any criminal or judicial proceedings.”
But it is years now since Anna first reported her abuse, and she believes the police have left it too late to gather evidence.
She told Sky News: “I think it’s either happening everywhere, or young people have been taken everywhere.
“I think the attitudes of the professionals, the police, social services, from what I’ve heard and seen, they seem very similar in every area.”
The government-commissioned rapid review by Baroness Casey is due to be published next week and is expected to call for a national inquiry into grooming gangs.
Like Anna and Fiona, many victims will welcome Sir Keir Starmer’s early response accepting the recommendation.
They will want the inquiry to probe into the operations of the perpetrators – who they are and how they are connected.
But they will also want clear accountability of the people and organisations who failed to act when they reported their abuse – and an understanding of why, so often, authorities fail to protect these vulnerable girls.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut