More than 6,400 people have signed an online petition posted by Kay Clarke, founder of the ‘1950s Women of Wales’ group, calling for a public inquiry to be held into changes made to the State Pension age for women born in the 1950s, despite the findings of an independent investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) published last March.
The Ombudsman’s final report stated that “Parliament must urgently identify a mechanism for providing that appropriate remedy” and recommended compensation equivalent to level four on its banding scale, which is worth between £1,000 and £2,950. However, the UK Government ruled out providing a compensation scheme for an estimated 3.8 million women despite numerous Labour politicians, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Liz Kendall, supporting campaigners while in opposition.
In December, Ms Kendall told MPs there would be “no scheme of financial compensation” for those affected by changes to the official age of retirement. In the statement to Parliament, the Secretary of State admitted there was maladministration by the DWP and apologised to all women impacted by changes to their retirement age on behalf of the UK Government.
The DWP boss went on to explain the reasoning behind the UK Government’s decision, which focused on research showing that the ‘vast majority of women’ approaching State Pension age were aware of upcoming retirement changes.
Ms Kendall also said that to implement the redress scheme suggested by the PHSO would cost taxpayers between £3.5 – £10.5 billion.
The announcement came as a huge blow to all women affected by the age changes who firmly believed a Labour Government would support their campaign for compensation. However, petition creator Kay Clarke argues that a “public Inquiry is necessary to expose the truth” for millions of women who have been affected by State Pension age changes.
The founding member of the WOW (1950s Women of Wales and beyond group) also believes the PHSO investigation did not take into account the “views of all campaigners” and wants to see other options explored which could have found a “ fair and balanced resolution”.
The ‘Hold a Public Inquiry into the State Pension age change for 1950s women’ has been posted on the petitions-parliament website. It states: “We believe that women affected by these changes were given inadequate notice of a further wait of up to six years to receive the State Pension. We believe a Public Inquiry is necessary to expose the truth.
“We feel that the way in which this case has been handled has not taken into account the views of all campaigners. We believe there are other options to explore and by listening to all groups, we feel a fair and balanced resolution could have been found.”
At 10,000 signatures of support, the petition is entitled to a written response from the UK Government and at 100,000 the Petitions Committee would consider it for debate in Parliament. You can view it online here .