Today’s report from Robert Behrens, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, is one of the most underwhelming publications ever to come from a public figure asked to redress a major injustice.
After toiling over his report for some seven years all he can produce is a mouse of a publication which leaves some 3.5 million women born in the 1950s having to fight their corner all over again to get compensation for waiting six more years to get their pension.
We should have known it was likely to be lacklustre after his first preliminary report conceded only “partial maladministration ” for the way the Department for Work and Pensions failed to communicate with the women about the long wait they would have to get their pensions. This immediately lowered the amount of compensation he might award at the end – ruling out the highest level. And WASPI under Angela Madden, were totally stupid not to challenge this at the time, particularly as evidence emerged during the judicial review brought by the ” Back to 60 ” campaign that the DWP’s own civil servants had urged the then secretary of state, Peter now Lord Lilley, to run a campaign to tell the women as long ago as 1997. They knew the women hadn’t realised the implications.
Spurious objections from the DWP
Now today’s report completely ducks the issue, make no recommendation for an award and caves into spurious objections from the DWP that it is either too costly to find the people affected or too costly to pay out. Given the DWP know the details of every pensioner bank account as they have to pay them every month, this is plain ridiculous. At least he spared them the other claim from the DWP that some of the 50s women were fraudsters if they put in a claim. No doubt this civil servant who wrote this relished prosecuting and jailing these elderly women like the managers who led the Post Office pursued the sub postmasters.
There is some guidance in his report which appears to suggest he might have thought giving them a range of compensation from £1000 each to £2900 but there is no detailed mechanism of how this could be done.
And as for asking Parliament to decide, the big question is how? For start there is no agreement on the level of compensation. Is it the £1000 – £2900 hinted by the Ombudsman ? Is it the £10,000 promised by Angela Madden and the All Party Parliamentary Group on this issue? Should it be the £58 billion that the former Labour chancellor, John McDonnell, promised during Labour’s last election campaign?Or should it be full restitution of all the money promised by CEDAWinLAW, which could end up with some getting over £40,000. There is plenty of space for everyone to disagree and delay.
What is the mechanism that will force the DWP to give into demands from Parliament? The answer is that there is none. Angela Madden today was spectacularly naive in thinking that is is wonderful that Parliament will decide.
Parliament controlled by Government whips
For a start the Parliamentary agenda is almost totally controlled by Government whips. And do people really think the government, which opposes paying anything, is going to make Government time available to debate something they don’t want to hear? Also Labour may be reluctant to use one of its Opposition days to debate the issue because it would force them to declare their hand and then be subject to barrage of attacks from the Tories claiming everybody’s taxes were to go up to pay these women? Only the Scottish National Party could risk calling a debate as the bill falls on Westminster not Holyrood.
A backbencher could put up a motion but I gather this would not be binding on the DWP who would safely ignore it.
The Parliamentary Ombudsman, who retires this week, could have given a clear uncompromising lead on what could have been done but flunked it. Frankly if I read the Jerusalem Post correctly he has give more uncompromising support to the Israeli government’s bombing of Gaza than he has defending the rights of cheated pensioners in this country.
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Its no surprise is the ombudsmans report. because he can only advise the gov and not make any demands. Going to him was a non starter from the start! I hope the waspi women are happy with getting nothing. because the DWP will not accept responsibility for their own wrong doing. And the government will just sweep this under the Carpet once again….. as for the ombudsman pfff!
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Thank you so much for all you do!
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Thank you for your article, David. However, I must pick on one comment you made. Angela Madden is not just “stupid”. WASPI was set up by Tory MP Jason McCartney, to keep 50s women under control and stop them successfully achieving compensation. Its all very underhand and you will never get anyone running WASPI to admit it, even if they know about it. I was involved as a member from the start. I lived in Colne Valley, his constituency and I was very vocal at the time. I was not capable of speaking publicly. A mysterious man involved himself closely at the time, I don’t remember his name. But the local wife of a BBC news reporter got her husband to set up an interview with two WASPI members. I was asked along to the first meeting to decide who these two would be. Only one person volunteered to appear on television and I was the only other person at the meeting. I was literally bullied into being the second person even though I repeatedly said I would be no good at it. This mysterious man jumped on my refusals. He got the others to excitedly insist I appear on tv, saying I would be letting the whole group down if I didn’t. The BBC news reporter said he would help me all the way. So I did. It was a disaster for me. After the broadcast, on Sunday morning, this mysterious man disappeared. Satisfied with his work I think. WASPI was NEVER meant to succeed. Its the toy of the Tories. Helen Cron
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Very interesting and more people need to read this. The PHSO route was set up for damage limitation for the Tories.
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im a waspi woman the government owe me 50.000 approximately , I’ve done nothing but struggle, even had to go to food banks in 2018/19
This is an absolute evil act from all involved against us . This is misogynistic, descriminating against woman and genocide against all the woman who have waited but died
I can hardly believe it
I’ve lost faith in every MP.
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This underwhelming, cruel and unjust outcome is sadly characteristic of the grubby corrupt country we live in where its all about self interests and personal greed for those in power but no one else. Plus these poor women have been left in limbo for all these years which is torturous in itself.
I took my complaint about Derbyshire NHS Trust to the PHSO, the Trust’s CEO was mates with the Ombudsman’s MD. They colluded to change their own report from one that upheld my complaint based upon independent expert advice into one that didn’t and the original report was destroyed. Its open corruption:
https://patientcomplaintdhcftdotcom.wordpress.com/
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unfortunately no government is ever going to pay the 50’s ladies any money. They stole far too much from us as Opperman said at the time the easiest money he had ever made.
I worked for DWP and did not know my pension date had changed until 18 months before !! And the letter told me you do not have to do anything!! Except work as in my case a further 3 years. Not so bad you think !! No I waited 3 years then awarded the old pension !! My pension is over £45 per week yes per week lower than the universal pension and with % increases this difference is growing!!! So I received a double whammy !!! after 44 years of working I receive a pittance. Compensation will not materialise and if it does they will find a way of excluding the likes of me. All I want is a fair result. Oh there is a pink pig flying by !!
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At last! the PHSO have agreed with what we said 7/8 years ago. why has it taken so long? Why have so many women had to struggle? the DWP have always known what they did was wrong, yet they have used their power to ignore it for all this time. the fight goes on but at least this time, we have it in black and white and they can’t argue. I’m supporting cedaw with regards to the case that the government wouldn’t even mediate about this massive issue that affected over 3m women with the Waspi chair. talk about absolute power. let’s hope there’s enough backing by our MPs to get this sorted out swiftly. the amount recommended by the PHSO is a pittance, so another battle for a fair amount is next. Angela Madden is right when she says there’s plenty of money to compensate us fairly. £10,000 being the figure suggested by the waspi group. I have lost over £55,000, so I think £10,000 isn’t too much to ask for. Angela also referred to other injustices, that the government’s past and present have ignored. let’s hope these can be put right as well, it’s decades for some, almost a decade for us waspis. keep the faith ladies. and thank you Angela Madden and Cedaw for fighting our corner. God bless.
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I wish they would stop referring to us as Waspi women and showing the same old TV news footage. I have a lot of respect for the campaigners, but none of them explain things the way you do, David. The talk about billions to fix this has just made things worse. The government took this money from us and then didn’t come up with the goods – we just want a refund. It is a national scandal.
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1950swomen were not vindicated this week, they were insulted. The PHSO was a discriminatory process and was flawed from the outset with irregularities and mistakes. If women do not get the financial redress that the Welsh Parliament have called for, we will be seeking a public inquiry.
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Seeking moral support please for creation of potential new From Infants to Over 50s political party, that would guarantee £35,000 compensation to 1950s ladies, tapered 1951 to 1953 and unique in compensating 1960 to 1964 born ladies, with pension 60 back for 1965 born ladies onwards in 2025. Party would run in this year’s general election. First political party with manifesto already written by us the people direct.
Facebook public Grey Swans page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/greyswanspensiongrouppeopleaged50plus
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We must not overlook the legislative framework covering the Ombudsman’s powers. The limitations on him are deliberate. When first debated in the late 1960’s, Quintin Hogg, for the then Conservative opposition, described it as ‘a swiz’. His identification of the issues was so correct that, in 1993, the then Conservative government extended the ‘swiz’ by enacting the Health Commissioners Act so that it included complaints against the NHS.
The latest parliamentary report by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) repeats previous findings that Ombudsman reform is essential and, this time, goes so far as to say that it should feature as a commitment in the manifesto of every political party at the forthcoming general election.
Given the past history of the two main political parties, I think the current situation suits both equally well and, if there is promise of reform this side of an election, it won’t happen afterwards. It suits them to have an ineffective quango with no powers of enforcement and limited resources available to conduct investigations.
The sentiments of disappointment expressed by your followers regarding this pensions issue only mirror those expressed in other forums such as the website ‘PHSO the true story’, their book ‘What’s the point of the Ombudsman’ and PHSO Trust Pilot reviews.
As a result of this piecemeal legislation, we currently have the ridiculous situation where health complaints are the responsibility of PHSO and social care complaints are dealt with by the Local Government Ombudsman. At the very least these should be combined and amalgamated with other bodies such as CQC, HSSIB, Patients Safety Commissioner. However, it will take a full blown public inquiry to recommend reconfiguration and a way forward and give the public proper access to remedies for injustice encountered in the NHS and Government departments.
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can someone please give me all the names of those that have opposed this payout. All those who caused this. Thank you.
:Angie.,beneficiary
via iPhone
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The WASPI women only sought compensation where Back to 60 wanted full recompense for the government’s dishonest and underhand behaviour – so they were not likely to get very much. The Ombudsman has no powers to deal with the real problems but can only address ‘administrative’ matters which is why they must go and an independent body, with teeth, be appointed to represent the underdog. This scandal is worse than the Post Office – according to the information I have seen, approx. a quarter of a million women have died waiting for fairness and decency to prevail. How many more of us will go before anything is done?
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