Martin Lewis issues state pension warning with WASPI women under threat | Personal Finance | Finance

Martin Lewis and Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) are warning of a surge in fake compensation websites which target women caught out by a rise in the state pension age.The Money Saving Expert said fraudsters are creating bogus sites which claim they are acting on behalf of the 3.6 million women impacted by the Department for Work and Pensions’ decision to hike the state pension age.

The Money Saving Expert (MSE) founder has teamed up with Waspi campaigners and charities including Independent Age, to make women aware of the “disgraceful” rise in online scams.

The fraudulent websites claim that compensation is available, when it is not, and there have also been reports of emails targeting 1950s-born women asking them to disclose personal information.

Lewis called the scammers criminals and said they were preying on vulnerable 1950s-born women.

Some of the fake websites claim that “DWP announces £3,000 compensation for 3.8 million Waspi women” while others present themselves as a “Martin Lewis Waspi Calculator”.

GB News reported that at least one woman in Derbyshire was asked to provide copies of her birth certificate and bank details through an online form before realising it was a scam.

While the government has acknowledged that it failed to give women enough notice when it hiked the state pension age for women from 60 to 65 it has so far refused a call from the Parliamentary Ombudsman to hand out £10.5bn in compensation to 3.5 million women, which would be round £3,000 per woman – but that the government has chosen to take a ‘different’ approach.

WASPI women have for years been campaigning for compensation from the government over the decision to increase the state pension age for women, arguing that they were not fairly informed in enough time to plan for their retirement.

Speaking in a Westminster Hall debate last month, pensions minister Torsten Bell defended the decision not to award compensation to 1950s born WASPI women.