Swansea pension campaigners to march on Westminster
Members of Pension Justice for Swansea Women will join thousands of other women from across the UK
Women who feel aggrieved about the way a rise in the state pension age was introduced will attended a rally at Westminster in London on March 8.
Members of Pension Justice for Swansea Women will join thousands of other women from across the UK as part of the Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), which campaigns on the behalf of almost four million women born in the 1950s, who were deprived of their state pension at the age of 60 when they were expecting it.
Jane Fisk, joint co-ordinator at Pension Justice For Swansea Women said these were women "who have been forced to wait an extra six years for a pension they were told at the beginning of their working lives would be theirs at the age of 60."
In the summer of 2021, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman ruled that UK Government officials were too slow to tell many women they would be affected by the rising state pension age.
The finding brought prospects of compensation closer for thousands of women born in the 1950s, but the ombudsman has no power to refund "lost" pensions.
It is also unable to recommend that anyone receive their state pension any earlier than current law allows.
It is a long-running saga dating back to 1995, when a law was passed increasing the state pension age for women from 60 to 65 to put them on equal footing with men.
The change was phased in from 2010 for women born between 1950 and 1955.
In 2020, women campaigners in a separate group lost a case in the Court of Appeal that the pension hikes were unlawful discrimination or a breach of human rights.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman will continue its investigation by considering what impact the injustice created by the two maladministration findings had.
Mrs Fisk said she did not expect all the pension money to be backdated to people like her, but felt the campaign must continue on behalf of the women whose circumstances were less fortunate than hers.
She added: "Following hundreds of complaints from women, a three-stage investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman took place.
"The conclusion of which is due for release in the next couple of months.
"We are travelling, yet again from all parts of the UK on March 8 to the same destination as our previous rallies, Parliament Square, to remind the Government that we are not going away and will continue to insist they reconsider our case with a view to compensating the women still left trying to cope with the broken lives the 1995 Pensions Act and the following 2011 Acceleration Act has caused."
Following the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's findings two years ago the DWP said at the time that the High Court and Court of Appeal had supported the actions of the department.
It also pointed out that "in a move towards gender equality, it was decided more than 25 years ago to make the state pension age the same for men and women".
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