Requests DWP chief to meet WASPI to discuss State Pension Age report

George Galloway MP is calling on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to meet representatives of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) over a recent report. This report, completed by the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO) on 21 March, found that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) did a poor job of communicating changes to the state pension age to women.

As a result, those affected may be entitled to compensation. The PHSO called on Parliament to “act swiftly” and put in place a compensation scheme, recommending compensation equivalent to Level 4 on its compensation scale, or between £1,000 and £2,950.

However, both the WASPI campaign and some MPs are pushing for the top tier award (Tier Six), which starts at £10,000.

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Last week, the newly elected MP for Rochdale wrote a letter to Mel Stride urging him to speak to WASPI campaigners about the report’s findings. Although Stride addressed the PHSO publication in Parliament on March 25, he said he was unable to comment on the findings until the 100-page document and accompanying recommendations had been fully digested.

In official correspondence, DWP Pensions Minister Paul Maynard MP said: “In tabling the report before Parliament at the end of March, the Ombudsman brought matters to the attention of this House and a further update to the House will be provided once the findings of the report were fully taken into account,” reports the Daily Record.

The same answer was given by Mr Maynard to Labor MP Stephen Morgan when asked about the DWP’s planned timetable in response to the PHSO’s final report.

Tomorrow (May 7), leading figures from the WASPI campaign will give evidence on the PHSO report to the Work and Pensions Committee. They include WASPI president Angela Madden and campaign director Jane Cowley, who are to communicate the practical impact of the report’s findings to the cross-party assembly of MPs chaired by Labor MP Sir Stephen Timms.

Additional contributors to the first session scheduled for Tuesday include Rebecca Long-Bailey, chair of the All Party Group on State Pension Inequality for Women and co-chair Peter Aldous MP. Scheduled from 12.05 to 13.00, it will be followed by interlocutory testimony from PHSO Acting Ombudsman Rebecca Hilsenrath and Karl Bannister, PHSO’s Director of Legal and Operations.

It can be watched live on Parlament TV. SNP MP Patricia Gibson recently confirmed that a debate and vote will take place in Parliament on Thursday 16 May.

The MP for North Ayrshire and Arran tabled a kick-off motion to the Backbench Business Committee last month, with the hope that the debate would at least lead to an agreement, through a vote, that compensation should be given to women affected by the changes.

Ms Gibson also confirmed the debate was scheduled for this afternoon and encouraged her followers on social media to call on their MPs to attend.

In addition, another SNP MP, Alan Brown, was expected to be heard for the second reading of the State Pension Age (Compensation) Bill on April 19, but it was postponed to Friday, May 17.