Hundreds of Northumberland women donate to WASPI legal battle

Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) campaigners have now donated over £75,000 as they close in on their £100,000 target to initiate legal action against the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).

They claim the PHSO ‘failed to follow due process’ in regard to its investigation of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over its failures to communicate changes to the State Pension age.

This saw millions of 1950s-born women affected by a lack of notice in the rise from 60 to 65 (and later 66), plunging tens of thousands into poverty.

It is estimated that over 6,610 1950s-born women across the Berwick constituency alone have been affected.

Of these, an estimated 27 percent across the county have struggled to pay energy bills this winter.

The Ombudsman concluded in 2021 that DWP was guilty of maladministration in its handling of State Pension age changes, saying that ‘if DWP had made a reasonable decision in August 2005 and then acted promptly, it would have written to affected women to tell them about changes to their State Pension age by, at the latest, December 2006.’

However, the Stage 2 report – due to be published shortly – makes an assumption that women would only have received notice of the change to their State Pension age as late as 2009, three years later than the Stage 1 report suggested.

Jane Cowley, WASPI campaign coordinator for Berwick, said: “Thousands of 1950s-born women across Northumberland have been badly let down by DWP failures and the flaws in the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report mean we have no choice but to seek legal action.

“Many women in our area had their retirement plans wrecked by the lack of notice around changes to their State Pension age and have been struggling to get by ever since. Yet – despite this – many have still managed to dig deep and donate to the campaign.

“This is testament to the longstanding commitment of WASPI women to get justice. It sends a message to both the Ombudsman and the Government that we are not going away.”