Exclusive: Leaked Parliamentary Ombudsman report blames 50s Women for not understanding they would have to wait six more years for a pension

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It says the 3.8 million affected by the six year delay can’t blame DWP maladministration for their financial losses and bad health

Rob Behrens Parliamentary Ombudsman Pic credit PHSO

The second stage of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s investigation into maladministration at the Department for Work and Pensions in failing to inform 3.8 million women born in the 1950s has dealt a devastating blow to their hopes of any meaningful compensation.

The confidential 298 paragraph provisional report, seen by me, is meant to analyse whether the maladministration finding means the women could be entitled to compensation following the first inquiry finding of maladministration for a 28 month period after 2006 The answer is very little and miles away from the £50,000 full restitution demanded in the courts by the Backto60 campaign

The report is also damning for the cause of the Waspi campaign who put all their resources into expecting the Ombudsman to come to the rescue. It is plain from the reading of the provisional report that he has no intention of doing so. This why I suspect Waspi have sent a desperate letter to the two Tory leadership candidates asking for a one off payment. When whoever wins gets round to seeing this Ombudsman’s report they won’t need to bother. The report contains no recommended figures for compensation. That will be in the next report.

The first paragraph of the report knocks down -one of the central planks of the 50swomen case- that nobody really realised the 1995 Pensions Act really meant the pension age for women was rising from 60 to 65 15 years later.

It reads:” The evidence we have seen so far suggests timely and accurate information was available about the change in eligibility criteria for a State Pension, including how someone’s National Insurance record links to how much State Pension they can claim once they reach State Pension age.  Research showed the majority of people knew about the changes“

Everybody knew about the pensions changes says report

Instead it blames the women themselves for not realising their impending losses while the rest of the UK knew exactly what was going on. Really?

“Research also showed that too many people did not understand their own situations and how State Pension reform affected them.  The gap between awareness and understanding was highlighted by the Work and Pensions Committee and the National Audit Office. DWP does not appear to have used research and feedback to improve its service and performance.  In this respect, DWP does not seem to have demonstrated principles of good administration.  We think that was maladministration. However, we do not think this maladministration led to the financial losses complainants claim.“

The report then emphasises that people had a choice in the old pension system – to pay for an additional pension on top of the basic state pension – but some chose to contract out of this. This is in fact not entirely true as some employers contracted them out of this scheme -so they would not have to contribute. As a result when the new pension came in in 2016 – some of these women will not get the full pension even though they have contributed for years.

The report then follows the Department of Work and Pensions line that this really doesn’t matter as everybody in the UK will be better off under the new pension than the old one. This is the same line the DWP used not to compensate people promised a Guaranteed Minimum Pension though millions lost out. But as I have said before this is a false comparison because everybody gets this new pension level whether they need to be compensated or not.

Maladministration did not cause financial consequences

It then turns to the issue of the hardship caused to the women by this long wait. The report said:

“We also do not think maladministration in DWP’s communication of changes to State Pension age more likely than not led to all the financial, health, domestic and emotional consequences complainants claim. Complainants told us they made choices they would not have made if they had known their State Pension age had changed, and described the financial, family and health consequences those choices have had. However, some of their choices had already been made by the
time DWP should have written to them about changes resulting from the 1995 Pensions Act.

We do not think women lost opportunities to make different decisions, if those decisions had already been made by the time DWP should have written to them.“

Instead it sticks to the argument that a 28 month delay in writing to women from December 2006 to April 2009 left ” some women are left not knowing whether they could have been in a different financial position, and whether they could have avoided the health and emotional consequences they claim.  We think that not knowing is an injustice resulting from maladministration in DWP’s communication about State Pension age.

“We also think the anger and outrage complainants feel about not having as much notice of their State Pension age as they should have, could have been avoided if DWP had written to them when it should have.  Their sense of anger and outrage is a further injustice resulting from maladministration in DWP’s communication about State Pension age.”

Changes just caused worry and confusion for some

Instead it found the maladministration caused worry and confusion and emotional stress.

This finding is crucial to the level of compensation – actual financial loss and bad health command a much higher level of compensation than worry and confusion. This finding is a real blow to those thinking they are going to get a meaningful pay out.

Finally the report exonerates the role of the Independent Case examiner (ICE) ruling out any compensation for people dissatisfied with its work.

“We think ICE should have said that it could not determine whether or not DWP had written to individual complainants who said they had never received a letter about their State Pension age, instead of telling them it was more likely than not they had been sent a letter.  But even if ICE had appropriately balanced the evidence in this way, we do not think the shortcoming in its handling of this issue was significant enough to be a failure to ‘get it right’”

Now there are two issues worth adding. The public statement from the Parliamentary Ombudsman completely glosses over the real meat of this report.

It says: We have shared the provisional views for the second stage of the investigation with complainants, their MPs, DWP and ICE. They now have an opportunity to provide comment.

It also promises to speed up the investigation and publish this report with its final report recommending levels of compensation, which has been welcomed by some MPs.

But remember you are reading this report one year before the Parliamentary Ombudsman wants you to know its contents. You now have an opportunity to comment on my website just like the organisations listed above.

Ombudsman report pulls the rug under the Waspi campaign

The second is the claim in the open letter to the two Tory candidates fighting to be PM. Now signed by over 15,000 people which asks people to pledge for a one off single payment:

” Our simple, pragmatic ask is that ministers open a dialogue with us about a one-off compensation payment to make up for the financial loss and emotional trauma caused to women born in the 1950s, as a result of the maladministration at the DWP in the period 2008-2012.”

The problem for all these people is that unfortunately for them the Parliamentary Ombudsman report has pulled the rug from under their feet- by ruling out compensation for financial losses.

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85 thoughts on “Exclusive: Leaked Parliamentary Ombudsman report blames 50s Women for not understanding they would have to wait six more years for a pension”

  1. I am fuming, disgusted, it is one lie after another. It is evident that the majority of us 1950’s ladies did not know, even if you were working for the DWP! I really believed that justice would be done at last! They are all as bad as each other!

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    • Every single person in the PHSO or any Government ‘Body’ is on a salary, receiving holiday, sick pay, a PENSION scheme etc…..…I learnt years ago the whole point of every Government Body is set up to ensure the ‘minions’ never get ANY form of justice…….for years and years I have been subjected to non stop abuse from I guess must be all of them…….having been Sexually abused NHS Employee in GP Surgery…….then tortured and persecuted because I dared to Complain, then denied refused ALL medical care until the day I die etc never allowed to give a Police Statement etc…now rotting to death 💀 with Tuberculosis……contracted by BREATHING…..nothing I did to myself…..I have never had a days salary, or paid leave or sick pay or payments towards my Pension…..ie NOTHING……just been subjected to further and further abuses by ALL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES COVERING UP THE MISDEMEANOUR OF ORIGINALLY ONE NHS EMPLOYEE……this whole abusive scheme was not designed or implemented for ‘little ole me’ it is a scheme devised to Break and Destroy anyone with genuine grievances against the State…..at least you know where you are if you live in Russia or China……just keeping State’s Employees, who are inevitably promoted to dizzy heights for following the States Corruption in Employment……..and yes, apparently also ALL my fault for daring complaining about SEXUALLY ABUSED in a GP Surgery whilst he (Fred Shaw) was being paid by NHS……but worst of all then telling someone including my delightful corrupt MP Chris Philp!!

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    • I absolutely agree with you, I 100% didn’t know and such important changes to anyone’s payments should be notified to each person in writing, not via newspapers/leaflets/television. At the time I had two young children and could neither afford newspapers or indeed had time to read them, I never received a leaflet, it stinks.

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      • Why are we taking this lying down? Why are we not legally challenging DWP, why are we not saying “prove that we knew about this” I’m sure they can’t prove it. I was never told I would have to wait 4 yrs. I never got a penny of my late husbands pension when he died aged 53. Then I didn’t get mine! DWP have stolen our money…and I want it back! We must do something!

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    • See Opperman has resigned now, nothing fishy there is there? We were never notified, they continually lie but we must not give up Ladies, we know we are right & by the way so do they. Thank You David

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  2. I am not an advocate of WASPI finding them quite naive to believe the Ombudsman would help – any Ombudsman is financed by the body the public makes a complaint about. I believed the Legal Ombudsman would hear me, instead they defended scurrilous solicitors deeming the service they gave was “satisfactory” when the evidence proved otherwise. WASPI muddied the waters, they should have handed control to Backto60 who have done everything possible to fight our case but they were up against the government who can never be accountable or take ownership for the appalling hardships they have put so many through. The Cost of Living Crisis and Brexit adding further to those hardships. They should be ashamed.

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    • Absolutely correct, any and all ombudsmen – and similar bodies – are not independent. Worse than not being independent, they are as you suggest on the side of those complaints are made about. Despite this I often see the mainstream press referring people to such complaints procedures.
      I have a dreadful revelation to make, are you sitting down? We live in an utterley corrupt world.

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  3. How dare they suggest it’s our fault I didn’t even know. Nearly 7 years I had to work what about what I had planned I found out to see about my state pension I was horrified. I have I’ll health .I have worked all my life. How dare they do this giving me extra nearly 7 years. If they had kept it at 60 the younger ones would have more jobs we could have our grandchildren more support. We need some protests now !

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  4. These people who are supposed to look after us are not telling the whole truth…in fact its far from the truth, we pay these people massive wages every year out of our taxes. We deserve honesty at the very least, we have worked our whole lives with the knowing fact that we could all finish work with a pension that we have all paid into at the age of.60… I smell something very nasty indeed, I can’t see this ever being the final word!

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    • This Is government protecting government. The determinations made again portray women as some sub species to.men. We did not understand the outcome of decisions to move the goal posts – insulting to say the least. We did not have the information to make informed choices and I for one believe this was deliberately withheld to ensure there was no challenge to this barbaric government directive.

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  5. Obviously a New Millennium Witch mk Inconsiderate, happy witch hunters living in a rich, green belt a areCriteria; Balls needed! Not golf baylls!! You wankers!!! Consider the deaths you have caused through sug

    Sent from my iPho

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  7. I am one of the women born in 50s and I am shocked and discussted the way we have been totally disregarded by this government How can anyone have any faith in any one in power when all we hear are lies I will never give my Vote to anyone who stands for Tory

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  8. How dare they suggest we knew, about the pension age rise. My divorce was based on me retiring at 60, i couldn’t claim on my ex husbands private or government pensions I had to have a clean break. I’ve brought my two daughters up on my own, had to start my life over again I’ve haven’t had time or years to put anything by for a private pension had no spare money.

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    • If your divorce was based on the evidence that it was considered that Govt paid you at 60, you should have had your state pension at 60, then you can take this to Court and win. Your Court papers will have the evidence that the legal system had considered your state pension would begin at 60 (thus confirming that not only women but official organisations, legal representatives were in the knowledg that it came at 60) and therefore financial assessment based on this. There is the evidence to use and prove.

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      • This is a very good point Anne. The Ombudsman by stating that everybody knew the pension age had changed could lead to the courts having to re-open divorce proceedings for fresh compensation if people applied to them.. In his hasty decision to defend the DWP, he has opened a Pandora’s Box that could clog up our court system even more.

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      • I asked for 48 months settlement in my divorce and my ex’s solicitor stated 42, my solicitor advised me to agree. This took me to my 60th birthday. 16 months later I found out through Backto60 on Facebook that I had another 6 years to wait. I was forced to close my business to allow the matrimonial home to be sold and struggled to find work. Divorce solicitors are no better than the DWP, they have no moral compass. The Legal Ombudsman were no better when I made a complaint and they dragged out the process for 2 years only to state my solicitors actions had been “satisfactory”. There is no justice in this world.

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  9. Dear ombudsman I don’t think you will ever understand why it’s wrong but I would like you to just know a bit off my story. I was married to my ex husband . He was alcoholic I was working 60 to 70 hours a week . I was beaten black and blue I had 7 inch knifes put at my throat. We had a mortgage that he would not pay towards He had no work lost his job. In the end I could not keep up with everything so the house had to be sold . Even then I had to give my husband £260,000 for pay 2 months mortgage . The money I had I had my 2 children that I had to look after . I had to get them somewhere to live . I could not save money women got less pay than men Men are meant to be bread winner then . I did not know I was not going to get my pension until I was 66 years old I have not been able to pay for my funeral but I have been told by doctors
    I might see this But not 💯 but I will not see the next one. I beg you please in 6 years extra what I work they had about £53 thousands pounds I will never get that back in my life . And I had work from the day I was 15 years old till I was 59 years old so you can think to Your self why people are angry. If I had known things mite have been different. But keeper telling my self I will pay for my funeral or start paying for it when I got my pension money I sent in for a forecast about just before I was 60 birthday and had a big shock. I would like would love to have a replay and just to say you can only deal with ones you Had and not taking any more. I think I have had an injustice by this government and would like to know what you think About it. Thank you so much

    Sent from my iPad Sue Cooke

    >

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  11. Utterly disgraceful word salad. How the ombudsman can be called ‘independent’ is beyond belief. How can being robbed of six years pension not cause financial hardship? It’s clear millions of us knew nothing about the hike in pension age until months before we were due to retire, if at all, and we all made decisions based on getting our state pension at 60. Many of us now have over 40 NICs when only 35 are required. So women in their 60s, many in il health, went on working out of the kindness of their hearts did they? What about the women forced to sign on with Jobseekers so they could apply for jobs they were never going to get? This report cannot be taken seriously and is aimed at letting the govt off its deceitful theft of the retirement of millions of women who are still not ‘equal’ to men to this day. Thousands of our group never made it to their pensions and spent their last years poor and desperate. Some day this fraud will officially be seen for what it is, but I fear most of us won’t be alive to witness it.

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  12. We haven’t got equality yet and the 50s generation certainly didn’t have equality, we paid married womens stamp we couldn’t pay into company pensions unless you worked full time, which the majority didn’t because child care was too expensive and our parents didn’t do what we do for our grandchildren either because they were working or they had done there but bringing us up. We were not informed and even women working at the DWP didn’t know.

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  13. Why does no one understand how we feel. This just makes me think that their tossing us on the rubbish heap. I have no words apart from “feeling more dejected more than ever before”.

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  14. The pension act was done in the name of equality, what equality? We worked very hard all our lives, I for one worked on a production line. We clocked in for 7.45 and finished at 5, every minute of the day had to be accounted for. No time was allowed for toilet break this was all done in our own time. The place was a sweat box, hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Being part of the working class, earning a living for over 44 years times were hard. Pay was poor, work was repetitive and soul destroying but that was work. All we ever wanted is to be fairly treated by the state, it’s was not much to ask was it? But we now know the government don’t care about its citizens. We were just very hard working women, who deserved more respect. Misinformation is everywhere we didn’t stand a chance really.
    David you have faithfully followed us through our journey, and have been a faithful supporter. I would like to thank you for that. The country is judged by the way it treats its people, I feel women are treated like second class citizens. We live in a very cruel world, and it will not get any better.

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    • Equality was never equality – it was a way for the Government to get women out working so that they could be taxed. The whole feminist movement was a sham actually – an orchestrated system. The Government knew it was only taxing half the population – what better way to spread the whole equality issue as if women would have rights, nice to have jobs. They had no rights and the women that brought up families had no rights either, they were treated badly and still are. The whole 50s womens’ pension scandal is just one scandal of so many. I wonder how many women know that their birth certificate is a fraud. Yes, we are registered at birth into a system of control (as are all males). Crown Copyright on our birth certificates. The strawman – the fictitious you, that can be controlled all your life. The equity bond on your birth certificate – your number. We are brought into a system of slavery right from the word go (research some of the phrases – worth your weight in gold). Your birth weight indicative of your value all your life in working, taxes etc. The whole system is fraudulent – it is the maritime system – law of the sea. Every woman and man should research Common Law and how they have been duped, registered into a system of control and a legal fiction. The Strawman. Sounds crazy – it isn’t. And the PHSO is Government funded and has no accountability to anyone. It is there to protect Government ministers, departments and policy. It’s a cover up – corrupt and designed that way.

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  16. DWP are Liars…nobody from that Department informed me that I would have to wait 4 years for my hard earned pension. If they would like to prove that they wrote to me in advance, I will welcome a copy of that letter, with my name and details on it.
    Monica Simpson

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    • Spot on, we should have been written to individually about such an important change. I worked for the Benefits Agency as it was called at the time, I and those women who worked with me had no knowledge of the change.

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  18. I have always wished I had psychic abilities. I would have known that I was going to have to wait an extra 6 years for my pension.
    Whatever way you look at it it’s wrong to not give us adequate notice. I had a cardiac arrest age 59 and then cancer two years later. Going through those years without much money was extremely difficult. This government has no real empathy for us.

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  19. I’m disgusted but not surprised by this. We have far too many greedy, self centred, bare-faced liars in government, who only want to line their own & family & friends pockets on the back of the working class. They would sell their soul’s to get what they wanted. We need to stand up together & show them that we’ve had enough, starting with a general strike. Enough is enough.

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  20. I have all ready contacted lock MP Helen Grant in the past but no help the Tory’s just do not care about women being treated as secondary citizens in this country hope the new Prime Minister might be more sympathetic to this Unjust hardship to women in this country and they might receive my vote for future keep fighting to this unhealthy decision many thanks to David Hencke and this team Mrs Tripta Khanna

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  21. Show me the letter informing me of the decision to defer my State Pension for six years as I know I didn’t receive it.
    The Ombudsman wants chucking out of office.
    If women hadn’t been so downtrodden over the decades we would have rioted in the streets.

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  23. I’ve said this from the outset and it is not highlighted anywhere. On the government’ s website it stated for all to see that WOMEN’s RETIREMENT AGE was AGE 60 !- this was still on there in FEBRUARY 2016!!!!
    This should mean -case closed- they are incompetent at communication- this proves it without a doubt and all the money spent on INVESTIGATIONS could of been used towards compensating 1950’s women. We have been well and truly shafted.

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  24. First of all thank you David for reporting to us even though they don’t want us to know, just like our loss of our pension.

    It’s an absolute disgrace thst the 50sWomen have been and continue to be treat with utter disdain.

    How dare they try to say its our fault. We and our employers paid our national insurance for our full working lives. We had to stop working when we got pregnant then look after our children, not receiving mone/ tax credits to put them in nursery as there weren’t any nurseries. To be ridiculed and looked down on by other members of staff if you did go to work leaving your children with family to look after them when they thought yiu should be at home looking after them and letting someone else having a job!
    We did not get maternity leave never.mind paid leave – our husbands/partners had to take holidays to be with their wives/partners – no such thing as paid paternity leave

    Our state pension was taken away for bailing out the banks and got no other reason. Unfortunately, because we knew nothing about it we couldn’t do anything about it.
    People working for the dwp didn’t know financial advisors and solicitors working on divorces didn’t know so it means many many women were given incorrect advice when getting divorces.
    Women, Mr Ombudsman are not to name hut the people we elect are fully responsible for bringing in the changes without telling us. Each and every MP should take a long hard look at themselves and put this wrong right. They should try and live on a wage without expenses, 2nd homes, 2nd jobs their pensions until this is corrected in the name of humanity because they are treating us as invisible people.
    I’m utterly disgusted that more mone is paid to those who are not entitled and wr the 50sWomen who paid and did everything asked of us are treat with utter contempt – which we do not deserve

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  25. seriously? they’re back to ‘it’s your fault because you’re too stupid excuse?’ Do these fools not even know what year it is now?…. that was actually updated decades back to ‘it’s your fault because you didn’t read something on our secret website that we can alter at will and retrospectively apply it to you’…..

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  26. Utterly disgusting. Every 1950s born woman knows this fraud started 1995. Total stitch up by the Tories and those in their pay. No harm caused? Explain that to families of the women who committed suicide.

    SHAME ON YOU OMBUDSMAN.

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  27. Remember those who pay the PHSO piper call the tune. He is an official that has no power of enforcement (and doesn’t want any) yet he wants power to instigate investigations on his own initiative. Check out the book published in June 2020 by the group PHSOtheFacts, edited by Della Reynolds entitled “What’s the point of the Ombudsman” ISBN 9781999929145. On the back cover it states:

    “A state captured ‘regulator’ is worse that no regulator at all. The flawed PHSO process gives an illusion of accountability for public bodies where none exists”.

    The Ombudsman would likely contend he is not a ‘regulator’ but we must turn the clock back to the 1960’s when the legislation was introduced. Quintin Hogg, leading for the Conservatives on the Ombudsman legislation of 1967, referred to it as ‘a swiz’. It still is, yet a Conservative government, which has held the reins of power since 2010 and for long periods before that, has done nothing about it. Either they believe it is a swiz or it isn’t. Try and get hold of the book, write to your MP and ask them whether they still agree with Quintin Hogg’s assessment.

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  28. “The report then emphasises that people had a choice in the old pension system – to pay for an additional pension on top of the basic state pension – but some chose to contract out of this. This is in fact not entirely true as some employers contracted them out of this scheme ”

    I would like to point out what is mentioned above is not correct as people did not have a choice to pay for the additional state pension as you were automatically included in it.

    Where the choice came in, was for your employer to make the decision to contract you out or not you contract out of the additional state pension, not your decision. You did not earn any additional state pension by being contracted out. The employer received a NI rebate and did not have to take on any additional liability. All they had to do was promise that your occupational state pension would not be less than the additional state pension given up for you by your employer.
    They did not even have to pay any indexation on part of your occupation known as Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) equivalent to the pension your employer had given up by making you to contract out of the additional state pension as the state paid it with the state pension.

    Employees also received a NI rebate to keep but in so doing by receiving the NI rebate they lost any additional pension they could have received if they had remained contracted in.

    “The report then follows the Department of Work and Pensions line that this really doesn’t matter as everybody in the UK will be better off under the new pension than the old one. This is the same line the DWP used not to compensate people promised a Guaranteed Minimum Pension though millions lost out. ”

    Again the DWP’s line above that you will be better off under the New State Pension will be better off is again not true for most people.

    If you compare the old state pension with the new you will see from the following figures that
    The maximum pension under the NSP is £185.15 pw
    Under the old state pension it is possible to have a maximum Basic state pension of .£141,85 pw and additional state pension of £185.90 pw making a total state pension of £327 .75 ie roughly £142 pw more under the old state pension which also pays inherited and derived rights as well as cost of living increases paid by the DWP on a person’s GMP which is not paid under the new state pension so a blatant lie.
    See following link.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-and-pension-rates-2022-to-2023/proposed-benefit-and-pension-rates-2022-to-2023

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  29. This Is government protecting government. The determinations made again portray women as some sub species to.men. We did not understand the outcome of decisions to move the goal posts – insulting to say the least. We did not have the information to make informed choices and I for one believe this was deliberately withheld to ensure there was no challenge to this barbaric government directive.

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    • After reading these comments
      I wonder why when government says that the young tax payer cannot afford to keep out generation, when we started work at 15 ,16 years old.
      They themselves do not start work until nearer their 20s, or even older, so would have to work longer to get the correct amount of ni years in.
      So my question to you is why did I have to pay ni to keep the generation before me, and I receive nothing in return. Where is the fairness in that.
      It’s not all about equality, but the fairness in this situation our fathers and their fathers before them fought so women could retire at 60 so they where the matriarch of the family,and kept families going, looking after old members and younger members of the family,so that their children could work and reap the rewards as we should be doing now.
      I think it is a crying shame because it not just us that will suffer so will the next generation.
      This government and the governments before them do not respect family culture.
      Or realise the poverty they are causing

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  30. Sadly WASPI have fallen into the trap of believing that the Ombudsman is there to help them. In reality the Ombudsman appears to defend public bodies against complaints by the public. Only 3.4% of complaints against public bodies are upheld by the Ombudsman. In 2020-21 only 2.5% of complaints against the DWP were upheld. The real trap however is that once the Ombudsman has made a decision about a complaint, any further attempt to obtain justice is effectively prevented. If the complaint is raised in any court or parliamentary debate it can be knocked down by simply stating that “The Ombudsman has already looked into this”. This is why there appears to be some truth in the claim that the Ombudsman’s real purpose is to protect public bodies from the public. You can find out more at the phsothetruestory website.

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    • So basically the Ombudsman is there to protect/represent the DWP/Government and not to represent and right any wrongs for the public? Is there really no justice in this country for the hardworking people, women who have worked 40-50 years and then another 6!

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      • You won’t find justice from the Ombudsman. He’s a tool of the establishment. It’s unusual for him to release a series of reports over a long period of time in response to a complaint. Notice how each report diminishes the seriousness of the complaint. The first report reduced the period of maladministration from 14 years to 28 months. This report diminishes the injustice from financial loss and health to worry, confusion and emotional stress. How much compensation will 28 months of worry, confusion and emotional stress be worth? Notice also how the Ombudsman blames the victims and refuses to believe their claims of financial hardship. This is all straight out of the Ombudsman’s playbook. The only way to get justice would be through large demonstrations by pensioners, the voter base of the Tories, but this seems unlikely to happen.

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  31. This is disgusting. How on earth can it be our fault if we didn’t know about it. I for one did not know about it and the same for all the other WASPI,S. You need to get off your high horses and get it sorted. You politicians are all as bad as each other. I have paid tax and national insurance for 50 years and still working (I will be 67 in 2 weeks) where is the justice in that. I thought the ombudsman was supposed to be impartial, obviously not.

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  33. What a load of tosh just one excuse after another because the DWP, yet again, made mistakes. I worked assessing Housing Benefit for 32 years and I had a lot of contact with DWP in my job and I didn’t know to the extent, how many times my SRP would change dates before I could claim. Still the DWP are as incompetent as ever I remember them and they will never and have not changed. I worked and paid into the system for 60 years with only 12 months off, while I had my son, and at times had two jobs. So I have paid for what is rightfully mine and don’t even get me started on SERPS I had paid before I went in to the Government pension scheme. Another shambles that the DWP will not own up to, no change there then. Feeble and disgraceful excuse using that women did not make themselves aware of changes to their SRP. Is this sexist???

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  34. Compliant with the government the PHSOShame on the ombudsman
    In my view when blame is used then no accountability is accepted at all and that is all that is left as an argument to use. I was not informed worked and paid NI for 51 years and retired last year from a job working with vulnerable people. The last 6 years took a toll on stress and my mental health in the role It was not dealing with clients but the politics within and the workload placed on individuals so eventually stepped down from management role to see out the rest of my working years. The anger I feel having been let down in my retirement by successive governments will always make me feel resentful. What has happed to all my NI Contributions. I certainly have not had the benefit of those extra11 years paying NI on top of the 35 yr threshold. I will never give up and support Back to 60 full restitution and CEDAW. I urge all 50s women to retweet like I am doing and make people notice this injustice. Thank you again David Hencke and Back to 60

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  35. Pingback: WASPI finally issues a statement on the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report – but keeps its supporters in the dark on its dire findings | Westminster Confidential

  37. Absolutely unbelievable. 3.8 million women didn’t understand. Are they joking. We all worked out socks off and everything we worked towards was for our retirement at 60. The government and the ombudsman are corrupt. They have no intention of paying us compensation. They’ve got our money and have spent it, no doubt, on decorating their flats, having parties, wasting millions on no good PPE. I could go on.

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  38. Many thanks to David and his team for sharing this info. and for all their commitment to our cause.

    I despair of the ombudsman …. How dare you imply that women were stupid, by not understanding. – We could not understand because we did not have the information.

    It is quite evident that the majority of us 1950’s ladies did not know. (SURELY WE CAN’T ALL BE STUPID!) It was a given when commencing work that our retirement age would be when reaching 60. Without receiving any alternative information or explanation, why would we expect any changes. Hence having no opportunity to plan or to make alternative saving arrangements.

    I have 44 qualifying years of NI contributions, and like most women from this era, received low wages,- especially in comparison to men’s wages. We have worked without handouts, benefits, bonuses, or the option of a workplace pension.

    All this is abundantly clear, and has been admitted by the government, DWP and ombudsman that there has been several issues of maladministration.

    This ombudsman’s report is purely aimed at covering up DWP maladministration and letting the inept and deceitful government off from its’ duty to look after its’ ageing women’s rights. All we want is what we have contributed for and earned AND what we deserve. No more – no less

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  39. As David says, we live in a corrupt country. Underneath the rhetoric, the UK is probably one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The DWP are the most corrupt public office and the Tory party are the most corrupt political party. The parliamentary ombudsman is colluding with all these corrupt institutions. Its so obvious because they all trot out the same narratives and same excuses. They do not and have never given a shit for the people of this country. From Maggie Thatcher to Theresa may to Liz Truss, woman get nothing from these women because they are as corrupt as their male counterparts. They care only for themselves and lining the pockets of their husbands and mates from Uni. I agree that pension ages should be levelled and we should be equal. If our government and institutions believe that then why, since 1995, have they not taken steps to ensure that ALL women have had equal access to childcare, education, carers, benefits, wages, healthcare, career opportunities, safe homes and streets and private pension plans. Instead of which women born in the 50s and 60s have had to put up with discrimination in education, healthcare and the legal system, sexual violence, domestic violence, unequal salaries, career discrimination if you have kids, caring for disabled children and elderly parents, unsafe streets, dwp errors, misinformation and lies, humiliation by the the pension minister and lies and ignorance from the tory party. The amount of hurdles a woman born in the 1950s faced to be ‘equal to men’ were so high that only the privileged few could ever surmount them. And having reached the dizzying heights of equality, those few women have chosen to ignore the rest of us. Thatcher stole our pension fund decades ago and the tories have zero conscience or decency and no intention of putting it right. The Ombudsman has been ‘got at’ as many predicted would happen. He’s as corrupt as the rest of them.

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  40. Think its about time we stopped being so soft about this and do what other countries would do, make ourselfs heard and protest

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    • having opinions/ telling people about them = protesting and that’s illegal now 😦 on the plus side they’re getting more honest about it like in china….

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  41. This is completely untrue. I was NEVER informed by DWP that I would have to work an extra 6 years. I took an early release scheme from the Ministry of Defence at age 58 on the understanding that my severance would last me 2 years until my 60th birthday and pension would kick in. I only learned of the change a year later when a friend asked me how I was going to manage. Absolutely disgraceful.

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  42. Age 63 now I had state pension forecasts in my fifty’s all confirming state pension age 60 years, then when nearly there I found the age had been extended to age 66.
    Already had to take on more insecure, work with less hours /pay due to re organisational at the local hospital because of austerity… told should deliver more for less in the nhs.
    Planning for the option of retirement at age 60 (as signed up and pain in for by myself and employers since age 18) in the next few years I should just about manage…. Then 6 years added on and £40-50,000 of pension contributions stolen by the government from the NI fund and used for all sorts of other things.

    Yes it has caused great financial, emotional, physical / ill health and and for family, should have had option of more time together as planned from earlier, we should have had more time to support children, grandchildren, parents … as it should be.

    Many have died and others are suffering with ill health and chronic conditions through these extra 6 years…without option of what they had paid in for.
    On top of it all are forced to continue to drag ourselves into work if NHS/frontline workers during COVID even though World Health Organisation says age 60+ are at high risk of mortality!!!
    Where is respect for elders from these people who have no idea what it is like to work hard towards something for years, only to have it cruelly snatched away at the last minute…
    Whilst they also brag about how much saved by doing so!!!
    This was not done in he name of equality as NI contributions and many other things were very different for men… resulting in their pensions even now normally being more.

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    • Do you still have those pension forecasts ? Surely that’s the evidence you need?
      I have to say that after reading all the comments on here I feel like I’ve been living in a parallel universe since 1995. That was the year of the Pension Act and I found out I’d be working until 65. I was 38 and self employed, busy with small children but it was big news and widely discussed. When the coalition government increased the age to 66 it was again covered extensively in the mainstream media. It’s been a long hard slog since I reached 60 but I have expected if for 28 years!

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  43. Pingback: WASPI women must manage their expectations with regard to PHSO Ombudsman findings. – phsothetruestory

  45. I had no notification. I understood equalising changes were coming in, and I would have to work a year or so longer. However, as the Cameron govt began dismantling public services, I was made redundant. I started a small business, knowing my private pension would cover my mortgage. I could just about manage. I planned to use my state pension to pay off mortgage. Then found out had to wait 6 years. Almost destitute. Then COVID hit & my retail shop shut. Had to remortgage an extra 20 years. I’m furious as I paid money into this Ponzi scheme and govt stole it off me. That is a breach of contract, maladministration and govt theft. Want my money back

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  47. :” The evidence we have seen so far suggests timely and accurate information was available about the change in eligibility criteria for a State Pension, including how someone’s National Insurance record links to how much State Pension they can claim once they reach State Pension age. Research showed the majority of people knew about the changes“

    That quote is not referring to the SPA rises as you claim. It’s referring to the NI qualifying years rising from 30 to 35 and how contracting out impacts it.

    Stage 2 was all about investigating the NICs rise and the DWP/ICE handling of the case. Stage 1 concluded maladministration over a 28 month period and Stage 2 was also looking at how that 28 month period affected women.

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      • My reading of including is that the eligibility changed from 30 to 35 years in 2016. However even with 35 years you are not guaranteed a full new state pension if you have been contracted out – that is what is being referred to as “including how someone’s National Insurance record links to how much State Pension they can claim”. So it’s not simply about the number of years but it also includes the actual record of contributions.

        So 2 parts;

        1. 35 years required as opposed to 30

        2. Contracting out/Additional pension from SERPS

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    • Dear Gail, I would like you and the DWP to send me a copy of the letter stating that I would have to wait 4 years for my hard earned pension. DWP tookmy money for 35 years of my full time working life. Why did I not get my pension aged 60, as set down in law at that time. I DID NOT GET A LETTER from the DWP. You also took my late husbands contributions for 35 years, sadly he died aged 53. I did not get a penny of his pension. This is corruption, lying, cheating hang your head in shame. But we will fight on

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      • Dear Monica – I’m not quite sure why you’re getting at me with your comment. I have made no comment on whether the PHSO/DWP has it right or not. All I have said is that I think David was wrong to claim that the paragraph was about the SPA rises when in my opinion it’s purely about the rise in NICs from 30 to 35.

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  48. What a complete cretin how can it blame 50’s women for not being in nformed of changes correction Robbery of our money 6 years Pensions Robbed by governments and DWP The biggest fraud and Theft since the great train Robbery difference is they were jailed.Robett Maxwell was jailed for same why isn’t he and his thieving Politicians and D2p jailed all thieves all commited fraud.my sister died waiting along with 90.000 women pre p ckdown all never got theirsall my Ney Robbed by Politicians DWP Our 6 years Pension Really bbed do you blame the victims m when a mugger Robs them? All theives you need to pay every woman £40.000+ each every deceased woman theirs to their Children it’s their inheritance Robbed by govs DWP all thieves should be in jail

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  49. I an a back to sixties women. Does this sound like we will need to adopt the behaviour of the women who fought for the vote. Chain ourselves to railings etc. after all we are the generation that has had to fight for everything . Started work at 15. Lost our jobs when we became pregnant. In my case unable to complete my day release course, after the personnel depart found out from the employers nurse I was pregnant, no data protection then. No childcare facilites other than your partner. No maternity leave because you no longer had employment. In order to contribute to the household income, forced to work unsociable hours, because of the childcare needs. No further education as parents expected us to go out and work. Later financially penalised when I went to university as a mature student because I was married and husbands income was taken into account.

    If it’s time for radical action count me in!!!!

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  50. This is a joke ,I was born in December 1953.I work for DWP and have done for 50 years and as I paid a married woman’s stamp had no communication regarding a pensionThere was definitely no leaflets in offices regarding this change.My husband passed away in 2004 so I assumed at 60 As he had paid the required no of years I would receive my state pension based on his contributions.My pension age was then changed to 62 and then was changed to 66.During this period the rules with no publicity were changed for widows so I now qualified for the married women’s rate of pension plus half of my husbands serps.Less than I would have got had the old rules remained.The way I found out about this was by chatting to someone from the pensions service at event we were at to publicise DWP to the public.I was given no notification of this change by the DWP.. In 2019 I was diagnosed with breast cancer but financially had no choice but to continue working.Personally I feel I was shafted 4 times and lost quite a lot of money due to this.

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    • If that’s the case, I would like DWP to send me a copy of letters sent to me, informing me of this. I have asked them 5 times now!??

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  52. There was talk of this being ‘phased in’ probably resulting in waiting approximately 2 years. Changing this to 6 years is unacceptable, but apparently it was ‘too hard’ to phase in. These are the people who run the country for Gods sake, what’s wrong with them that they can’t make fairly simple maths decisions. They would not have done this to men. Many part timers weren’t even allowed to join the pension scheme! No equality then! All those women who would have looked after elderly relatives returned to work and their contribution to society and specifically stopping the NHS being overwhelmed was never appreciated. Not such a clever idea now was it when you look at ambulances queuing as beds are blocked by the elderly with no one to go home and be cared for!
    Ombudsmen work for the government, not the people.

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  53. Rob bearers won’t change his brainwashed public schoolboy brain they’re all the same self serving ,4 million women are not qrong Rob bearers hope we get our hands on likes of you thieving lot you’ll all be dead soon tossers

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