Any compensation scheme for Waspi women cannot be “one size fits all” but should instead have a two-tiered approach, according to Jane Cowley, campaign director for the women against state pension inequality campaign.
Giving evidence to the Work and Pensions committee about the PHSO’s investigation into the government’s handling of the change in state pension age, Cowley felt a standard approach to compensation “was not right”.
She said: “There would need to be a two pronged approach. One section of the scheme should operate swiftly and easily with the recommended level of compensation tailored to the length of notice a woman was given about the change to their state pension age. This can be easily put in place.
“The second prong of the scheme would be for more difficult cases and the ones that would potentially take longer to process because the individual case would need to be looked into in more detail.”
Cowley felt a completely individualised approach to compensation would take “far too long” and would cause huge delays.
She outlined three key principles the Waspi campaign wanted a compensation scheme to adhere to, which included a process that was quick, straightforward and easy to understand.
“In terms of the information women would need to provide, this needs to be simple and straightforward like asking for a date of birth or national insurance number,” Cowley added.
Cowley was joined by Angela Madden, chair of the Waspi campaign, Rebecca Long-Bailey, chair of the all party parliamentary group on state pension inequality for women and co-chair Peter Aldous.
Madden said through the course of the campaign, the group has tried to “communicate and manage” the expectations of women in terms of what compensation could be given.
She said: “Our campaign was never to go for restitution, we have always campaigned for compensation. There are some campaigners for restitution who are expecting to get their full state pension back but we feel there are more campaigners who are willing to accept that compensation is the right way forward.”
Madden added that Waspi women expect compensation to match the injustice they have suffered.
“The idea that the level of compensation should be commensurate with the maladministration of the DWP is a bit off and that needs to be considered further,” she believed.
Aldous wanted to see more than just an apology from the DWP, adding: “The apology needs to come with an explanation of what went wrong and to show that steps have been taken to ensure the same does not happen again as well as financial compensation given.”
Compensation is a “balancing act”
In a second panel, the committee heard from Rebecca Hilsenrath, interim ombudsman at the PHSO and deputy, Karl Bannister.
Hilsenrath said any compensation would be a “balancing act between time and money on the one hand and individualised justice on the other.”
In its report the PHSO recommended a level 4 banding should be applied when looking at compensation but Hilsenrath recognised there may be some cases where more compensation should be considered.
She said: “There is obviously a range within level 4 and we recommended this level based on the six sample cases we used in the investigation.
"We're not ruling out the fact that there might be other elements or other cases where a different level of compensation might be appropriate.”
Hilsenrath emphasised that parliament would not be able to implement remedy without government’s support but hoped steps would be taken to address the issue regardless of which government comes into power in the next election.
“My hope would be that if this parliament can take steps towards a resolution for the benefit of people where time is not on their side, then that will send a very clear message to any succeeding parliament and any succeeding government department,” she added.
alina.khan@ft.com
