Thousands of UK women owed pension payout after ombudsman’s Waspi ruling

Campaigners claim that almost 4 million women born in the 1950s had their retirement plans “plunged into chaos”, with many of them left thousands of pounds out of pocket after the DWP increased the state pension age from 60 to 65, and then to 66.

On Thursday, the PHSO issued its final report, which said “thousands of women may have been affected by DWP’s failure to adequately inform them that the state pension age had changed”.

However, the report said that looking at the sample of complainants’ cases, it would recommend compensation of between £1,000 and £2,950 to reflect a “significant and/or lasting injustice that has, to some extent, affected someone’s ability to live a relatively normal life”.

The report said compensating all 3.5 million-plus women born in the 1950s at its recommended payout level would cost £3.5bn to £10.5bn in public funds, but it added: “We understand not all of them will have suffered injustice.”

Waspi has said hundreds of thousands of women did not have enough time to make alternative plans, and that some had had to sell their homes, go without essentials or rely on their elderly parents because of the way the changes were made and communicated.

Webb told the BBC that in an election year he did not think parliament would “vote for nothing to be done”, adding: “So, I think we will end up with some form of rough justice – I would guess in that £1,000 to £3,000 range that the ombudsman has recommended.”