The Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride told a committee he was still working through some of the issues thrown up by the report published on March 21
Dozens of MPs unanimously called for a timetable of a planned compensation scheme for women born in the 1950s who have been impacted by changes to the State Pension age, during a debate on the findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) final report last week.
A similar call was made to the Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride during an evidence session in front of the Work and Pensions Committee on Wednesday by Conservative MP Siobhan Baillie. The Stroud MP urged the DWP to do the “kindest thing” and announce a timeline for when it plans to respond to the report and if compensation will be paid.
Chair of the cross-party group of MPs, Sir Stephen Timms, had also previously written to Stride pushing for a compensation timetable to be announced before the parliamentary summer recess on July 23.
Baillie said: One of the greatest impact issues for 1950s WASPI women (Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign) is their inability to plan and their lives being kind of turned up on their heads when they thought they were going to be able to retire and look after their grandchildren, all of those things.
She added: I have made this case repeatedly on behalf of Stroud WASPI women and I said it in Parliament as well, the kindest thing that Government can do is to allow these women to do is plan and publish a timeline – even if it is a long shot date – to be able to be told what is happening.
Baillie said that she understood the complexities of compensation and the findings of the report, but said that “coming up with the timeline and finding a way of sticking to it” is the best thing the Department for Work and Pensions could possibly do as a Department “regardless of what happens with elections”.
Earlier in the meeting, Mel Stride said he did not yet have a timeline for responding to the PHSO’s report. He told the Committee he was still working through some of the issues thrown up by the report published on March 21.
Just a few hours after that meeting ended, Rishi Sunak called a General Election for July 4, saying it was “the moment for Britain to choose its future”.