WASPI women could be preyed on by scammers as a compensation scheme has yet to be rolled out – with one Labour peer highlighting its urgency.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is being urged to recognise the “urgency” in addressing compensation for millions of women that have been hit by State Pension age revisions. The recommendations were made in the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) recent conclusive report.
In the House of Lords, Lord Davies of Brixton highlighted the risks of delay, warning that it “is leaving the people affected prey to scammers, who are offering to assist them in making claims”. He stressed that “this issue needs to be resolved as quickly as practical”. The Labour peer also noted that the Ombudsman “made it clear that these women suffered from maladministration and that they are entitled to redress”.
Baroness Sherlock, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the DWP, clarified: “To be absolutely clear, because there has been no response to the report, there is no compensation scheme. Anyone claiming to offer it is scamming and nobody should touch it – please can that message go out loud and clear.”
She further stated that the UK Government is “looking very closely at the findings of the ombudsman and will respond as soon as is practicable”. This past summer, the Women Against State Pension Inequality ( WASPI ) campaign flagged a worrisome trend when it encountered a startling rise in phoney compensation claim forms online.
At the time, WASPI disclosed that several illegitimate websites had sprung up, falsely assuring women affected by abrupt increases to their State Pension age that they could snag up to £2,950, depending on individual circumstances, reports the Daily Record.
The campaigners revealed that these web pages, which seem to have been created abroad, misleadingly told females born in the 1950s they’re eligible for cash handouts if they fill out the fraudulent forms but in reality, these are merely ruthless scammers preying upon senior citizens.
In its report issued on March 21, renowned as the PHSO, stated emphatically that “Parliament must urgently identify a mechanism for providing that appropriate remedy” and put forward a suggestion for compensatory payouts matching Level four of its compensation scale – values oscillating between £1,000 and £2,950.
As yet, no official compensation scheme has seen the light of day; hence any site claiming to offer assistance in making such claims is undoubtedly fake and should immediately be reported to Action Fraud. Senior citizens in Scotland who have fallen prey to these deceitful schemes ought to ring up Police Scotland on 101.
Just earlier this week, Pensions Minister Emma Reynolds made it known that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is currently “considering the costs of setting up a compensation scheme” aimed at those caught in this unfortunate predicament.
Pensions Minister Ms Reynolds addressed Liberal Democrat shadow work and pensions spokesperson Steve Darling in a written reply on Tuesday, shedding light on additional financial insights uncovered by the DWP during its assessment of the Ombudsman’s probe and subsequent report. She articulated, “As part of our work on the Ombudsman’s investigation and report, we have been considering the costs of setting up a compensation scheme.”
Upon dissecting the fiscal impact of potential compensation measures, Ms Reynolds highlighted a significant oversight in the prior estimates offered by the PHSO. “The Ombudsman used DWP’s broad estimates in their report published 21 March 2024, stating that ‘Compensating all women born in the 1950s at the level 4 range would involve spending between around £3.5 billion and £10.5 billion of public funds’. This estimate excludes administration costs.”
In her communication, Ms Reynolds assured that the government is diligently addressing the findings in the Ombudsman’s dossier: “This government is giving its full and proper consideration to all areas of the Ombudsman’s report.”
She concluded with an assurance that further steps would be disclosed post-evaluation: “Once this work has been undertaken, we will be in a position to outline our approach.” The context of this exchange was Mr Darling’s inquiry to DWP regarding whether it had conducted any financial modelling for a tentative compensation structure as a response to the PHSO’s ultimate report revelations.
