Women’s State Pension Age: Ombudsman Report

Hannah Bardell Excerpts

Thursday 16th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) for her blistering and brilliant opening speech. She speaks for many of our constituents and for those Members who cannot be here today. We must remember, as other Members have said, that WASPI women are not just some distant, transient group, but real people with real lives, and that this injustice has had a real impact. They are mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, sisters, aunts, carers and daughters. Many have passed away in the time that we have been trying to secure them justice.

I find it remarkable that the ombudsman has such little faith in the Government that it is turning to Parliament to try to find a resolution and a remedy. And we owe it to those WASPI women to do so. We have taken an oath of office to our constituents—all of us—to find a resolution and a solution. Sadly, it has become the business of this Government to kick the can down the road, whatever the issue is. Whether it is the Horizon scandal, Primodos or contaminated blood, it seems to have become an ingrained and institutional habit to kick the can down the road and make those who have suffered at the hands of Government to wait even longer.

A Conservative Member made the point about the cost of redress and remedy, and of course we must recognise that. But in doing so we must also recognise the money that has already been spent by the civil service and the money and the time that have been spent by our constituency staff and all of us. I suspect that the amount of money and time that has been spent on this report is almost equal to the money that needs to be paid to bring redress to the WASPI women.

While we are looking at what remedies we can find and what money can be sought, perhaps we should be looking at proceeds of crime money. Perhaps we should be looking at the Russian oligarchs who need to have their assets seized—or have had their assets seized—proper sanctions against those who launder money, and the dirty money that flows through the financial institutions of the UK. I have sat on Bill Committees in this House and seen the Government take lacklustre action. The money is there; it is about political will, as my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran said.

I have had many representations from the 6,500 WASPI women in my Livingston constituency, and today I want to give them a voice. Shirley Sharp was born in October 1954. She took early retirement from the Scottish Government in December 2008, when she was 54. Before deciding to leave, she contacted the pension service and received her forecast. She said:

“I knew when I left my job I would receive my pension on 6/3/2019 when I was 64 years 6 months old.

After I left another 18 months was added to my pension age which I couldn’t make provision for. To add insult to injury my husband is 8 months older than me and he received his pension 14 months before I did. If it was about equality why was I penalised 6 months more than men?

I have been in receipt of my state pension since 6/9/2020. I am still very angry about how this whole thing has been/is being handled.”

Another constituent, who did not want to be named, took early retirement from the civil service and looked after elderly relatives for four years until 11 months before her 60th birthday. At that point, her sister asked her whether she was planning on getting a part-time job. She said that she was exhausted and that she could manage financially as long as she got her pension in 11 months’ time. She could not believe it when she was told that her pension at age would be 66. She thought that her leg was being pulled. She phoned the DWP, which confirmed what she had been told, but she had “never had any communication” about this from the DWP.

Another constituent, Anne Seenan, missed out on £14,000, having had her state pension delayed by two years. She said:

“I never received any communication from the DWP”.

Another constituent, Dianne Risbridger, said:

“Unfortunately I am one of the women affected by a chronic life limiting illness which adds to the distress, as well as being born a mere three weeks after the cut off date for appealing, so a double whammy in my case.”

Another constituent, Jill Parton, is watching this debate. She is an incredible woman who I know well. She said:

“Unfortunately, I am one of the tens of thousands of women, born in the 1950s, who have been badly affected by the rapid rise in State Pension Age for women.

I worked part time while I was training to become a teacher and started full time working in August 1975 when I was 20. I always expected that I would receive my State Pension at age 60. I married in 1977 and continued working full time.”

Jill took six months off to have her two children. She separated from her husband before her son was born. She found out that she would not receive her state pension at 60 during a staff meeting. She reminded me today that her divorce settlement, like those of many of her constituents, was predicated on when she would get her state pension. Unfortunately, she also lives with a diagnosis of Fuchs’ corneal dystrophy. The unpredictability of the condition, and the impact of teaching under bright lights, meant that she could not teach. She said:

“I find it very difficult to understand the government position on this. While they are making tens of thousands of women work until 66 they have even more young people who can’t get jobs. For the mental health of all concerned would it not be more economical to allow the 60+ women to retire and the young jobless to have their jobs?”

Mental health worries affect many people. Jill is deeply concerned about the impact that the issue has had not just on her, but on many others.

The bottom line is that we are talking about a social contract between our constituents and the Government. Many of these women have already suffered great discrimination throughout their lives and have not been able to pay their “full stamp”, as it was called back in the day. They had no idea this was going to happen. It is not good enough for some to say that the communication was adequate. Putting out a press release is not proper communication.

The Government need to get a grip on this issue, and understand the profound impact that it has had on other constituents of mine: Susan Rankin, Chaw Atkinson, Elizabeth Donnelly, Linda Howieson, Meg Wilson, Marion Wight, Margaret Diamond, Anne Waugh and Gloria Fairgrieve. I wanted to read their names out because they are real people with real lives, and this is having a real impact on them. If there is one decent thing that the Government could do before they are booted out of office, it would be to give the WASPI women the justice that they deserve.