WOMEN Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaigners have welcomed the Ombudsman finding the Government guilty of maladministration from 2004 onwards and have called for a ‘fair and fast resolution’.
The report said it failed to contact women born in the 1950s in person to inform them of state pension age changes.
Campaigners have long said that those women affected by changes proposed by the 1995/2011 Pensions Act were unaware of the alterations, despite a publicity campaign.
WASPI co-ordinator Teresa Bowers said: “We hope the Ombudsman will now complete the next stage and decide an injustice has taken place that deserves compensation.
“The Government will then have a moral duty to put things right.”
Over the past two years many women from Redditch have lodged complaints after budgeting to retire at the age of 60 only to suddenly find the date arbitrarily moved five or six years.
It plunged many into financial difficulties. In some cases a divorce judge might have made a ruling in the past anticipating that a woman would receive her state pension at 60.
Then there are other cases, like that of Redditch’s Kath Skermer, who suddenly found herself a carer, yet with her state pension moved years into the future.
“The ombudsman ruling is good news – now we will have to wait and see if we actually get something other than an apology,” she said.
“It has been a terrible time – some women have been suicidal they’ve found themselves so short of money.
“All that planning for retirement and then suddenly they move the goalposts.”
The Ombudsman’s final ruling applies to all women born in the 1950s affected by the changes, not just those who have lodged a complaint.
Kath has now reached 66 and received her first pension this month.
“This has been dragging on for so long – you have to remember that women who died in the meantime and never got to this stage and who will never ever benefit from any compensation.”
