Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when any Minister in her Department last held a meeting with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign; and when they next intend to do so.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A Departmental Minister met with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) on 29 June 2016. There are currently no plans to the meet with representatives of the group.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when any Minister in his Department last held a meeting with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign; and when they next intend to do so.
Answered by Simon Clarke
HM Treasury does not hold records of any recent meetings ministers have held with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign. There are currently no confirmed dates for such a meeting.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the call by Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) women for fair and adequate compensation; and what steps she plans to take in response to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on the communication of changes to state pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It would not be appropriate to comment on the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report whilst the investigation is ongoing; and section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”.
This a multi staged process and the report published on 20 July 2021 concluded stage-one of the investigation.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to have discussions with (a) campaigning groups and (b) the APPG on State Pension Inequality for Women on the recent findings of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's report entitled Women's State Pension Age: our findings on the Department for Work and Pensions' communication of changes.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has not completed his investigation. This a multi staged process and the report published on 20 July 2021 concluded stage-one of the three-stage investigation.
It would not be appropriate to comment on the PHSO’s report whilst the investigation is ongoing; and section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she last met representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality group.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State has not met with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality group.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what further steps she will take to address the concerns of the WASPI women.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Changes to State Pension age were made over a series of Acts by successive governments from 1995 onwards, following public consultations and extensive debates in both Houses of Parliament. The decision to equalise the State Pension age dates back to 1995, and addresses a longstanding inequality between men and women.
The Government’s position on the changes to State Pension age remains clear and consistent under successive governments. Any amendment to the current legislation which creates a new inequality between men and women would unquestionably be highly dubious as a matter of law.
Parliament set out successive Pensions Acts transitional arrangements when it introduced the changes to State Pension age. There are no plans for further transitional provisions.
State pension has risen by 2,050 in real terms since 2010 and with pensioner benefits of £129 billion, the state pension and supporting benefits have never been higher.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury's oral contribution of 22 June 2021, Official Report, column 745, what recent assessment she has made of state pension inequality in respect of the ongoing Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman investigation and women born in the 1950s.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
All Ombudsman are independent of government. It would be inappropriate to comment while the PHSO investigation is ongoing.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions her Department has had with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality group on the effectiveness of her Department's communication of changes to women's state pension age.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
There have been no recent discussions with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality group.
Asked by: Stephanie Peacock (Labour - Barnsley East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of women affected by changes to the state pension age, in (a) Barnsley East constituency, (b) Yorkshire and Humber and (c) the UK in each year until 2029-30.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Labour Government 1997-2010, the Coalition 2010-2015 and the Conservative Government of 1992-1997 have taken a similar approach to raising State Pension age. As you are aware, from the 1940s until April 2010, the State Pension age was 60 for women and 65 for men. The decision to equalise the State Pension age for men and women dates back to 1995 and addresses a longstanding inequality between men and women's State Pension age. Without equalisation, women who reach the age of 60 in 2019 would be expected to spend over 40 per cent of their adult lives in receipt of State Pension, on average. Changes to the State Pension age put right a long lasting inequality which was based on an outdated rationale that women were dependent on their husband's incomes.
Further changes were recommended by the Pensions Commission in 2005 as it became clear that things were changing, for example, life expectancy was increasing and a State Pension age fixed at age 65 was not sustainable or fair between generations. It recommended that in the future State Pension age should increase in line with life expectancy and also recommended the introduction of a State Pension age timetable that reflected this.
The 2010 to 2015 Government made the decision to bring in changes to the State Pension age, following extensive debates in both Houses of Parliament. The 2011 Pensions Act accelerated the equalisation of women's State Pension age by 18 months and brought forward the increase in men and women's State Pension age to 66 by five and a half years, relative to the previous timetables.
Women born between 6 April 1950 and 5 April 1953 were affected by State Pension age equalisation under the Pensions Act 1995. The Pensions Act 2011 accelerated the equalisation of State Pension age, and included transitional arrangements limiting State Pension age delays, affecting women born between 6 April 1953 and 5 December 1953. It also brought forward the increase in State Pension age from 65 to 66 which affected women born between 6 December 1953 and 5 April 1960.
The Department for Work and Pensions only holds estimates at a Great Britain level. The latest estimates are that 4.84 million women in Great Britain are affected by the changes to the state pension age between 2010/11 and 2029/30 (rounded to the nearest 10,000). The figures are based on DWP calculations using the 2018-based ONS population projections. These estimates are the numbers reaching State Pension age, and are not necessarily the same as the number of new claims for State Pension.
A detailed breakdown of the overall 4.84 million figure is provided per tax year in the Table 1 below:
Table 1 – Number of women in Great Britain affected by SPA reforms between 2010/11 and 2029/30, Source: DWP calculations using ONS population projections, Rounded to the nearest 1,000
Tax Year | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 |
No of women | 179,000 | 170,000 | 178,000 | 166,000 | 176,000 | 169,000 | 93,000 | 89,000 | 81,000 | 179,000 |
Tax Year | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 | 2025/26 | 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 | 2029/30 |
No of women | 253,000 | 349,000 | 362,000 | 377,000 | 383,000 | 389,000 | 204,000 | 201,000 | 415,000 | 427,000 |
Information on the numbers affected by UK, constituent country, parliamentary constituency or local authority is not held by the Department for Work and Pensions. However, recent population projections for the UK can be found here:
Population by local area and higher local authorities can be found here:
Population projections by regional area can be found here:
Asked by: Gordon Marsden (Labour - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions Ministers in her Department have had with groups representing women born in the 1950s who have had their state pensions age changed as a result of the Pensions Act 2011 on options for those women to draw their pensions at a reduced rate at 64 years of age.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Secretary of State has committed to meeting the joint chairs of All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on State Pension inequality for Women.