DWP chief issues update over WASPI decision as deadline looms | Personal Finance | Finance

DWP bosses have issued an update over when the new WASPI compensation (Women Against State Pension Inequality) decision will come out. The Government announced in December 2024 that it would not provide payouts for the 1950s-born generation of women, represented by the WASPI campaign and others. But this decision was rescinded in December 2025, with the campaigners now awaiting the new decision from the DWP, with the possibility that there could be a financial remedy.

These women were affected by their state pension age increasing from 60 to 65 and then 66. The campaigners claim they were not sufficiently informed of the change by the DWP, with many having to suddenly change their retirement plans when they found out. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman previously investigated the issue, and recommended that the women should get payouts ranging from £1,000 to £2,950.

The investigation by the Ombudsman found there was ‘maladministration’ from the DWP, as they should have sent out letters to the women sooner. The watchdog also called on the DWP to improve its communications to avoid similar issues in the future.

‘Serious concerns’ raised by the Ombudsman

In the original decision, Labour ministers did accept there were major errors in its communication efforts, and promised to work with the DWP to implement an “action plan”, to improve its services. But with the months passing and little action from the DWP, the Ombudsman wrote to the Work and Pensions Committee to raise “serious concerns” about the delays.

DWP bosses were called before the committee this week [January 21] to explain the reason for the hold-up. DWP permanent secretary Peter Schofield said he spoke with the Ombudsman in January 2025 about how to bring about this action plan, but “it took a while” to get things going. The two groups had further workshops in April and June, to look at drawing up a plan to improve its handling of complaints and of communications.

Mr Schofield said they had a “working draft” agreed over the summer and by the time that Labour ministers announced they would re-take the decision. He said: “This re-taking of the decision does mean that we can’t work on the implementation of the previous decision, and the action plan was part of that. I met with the Ombudsman before Christmas and I explained where we were with the action plan.”

He said he had showed the Ombudsman, Paula Sussex, the draft action plan and so was “surprised” to see the letter she later sent to the committee, where she had criticised the DWP’s lack of action. The committee was bemused as to why the new decision being taken should mean the action plan is delayed as well.

A formal exercise

Mr Schofield explained: “There’s a formal, serious exercise going on, which is retaking a really important decision by Government. The action plan itself flows from a previous decision, that has now been retaken, so there’s a formal Government process here underway.

“That means I’ve got to stop work on the implementation of the previous decisions. That’s the formal position that I’m under.” On the question of when ministers will issue their new decision, there is a deadline in place for this.

The previous decision was set to be challenged with a judicial review, which was applied for by WASPI. But the two sides agreed an out-of-court settlement in December 2025, shortly before they were set to do battle at the high court.

The DWP agreed to pay £180,000 towards WASPI’s legal costs and that Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Pat McFadden, would issue his new decision within three months. This means the new decision needs to come out by early March.

Mr Schofield told the committee: “That decision is now being retaken. That decision is now being re-taken by the Secretary of State. I imagine it won’t be too long before he makes that decision.”

Work is underway

Mr Schofield was keen to tell the committee about what the DWP has already been doing to make sure people better understand their state pension. The top civil servant said: “We’ve got a campaign underway at the moment called ‘Check your state pension age’, we’re going to evaluate that in April.

“That builds on previous campaigns, one about ‘Get to know your state pension’ and one called ‘Will the retirement you get by the retirement you want?’ We’ve got online tools such as ‘Check your state pension age’ and ‘Check your state pension forecast’.

“That enables anyone to go onto the system and see what their National Insurance contribution records look like, it enables them to see what their forecast would be.”

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