Thank you to those constituents who have contacted me about women affected by changes to the State Pension age (SPA).
As you know, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman published the findings of its investigation into the way State Pension ages were communicated to 1950s-born women in March 2024. Importantly, the investigation did not concern the principle of SPA equalisation, which successive administrations have supported, but rather the way in which this change was conveyed to those affected.
In December 2024, the Government issued a formal response, having carefully considered the Ombudsman’s findings. It subsequently emerged that information about the effectiveness of the letters used to communicate SPA changes had not been provided when this decision was made. For that reason, in November 2025 the Government decided to reconsider its response to ensure it was based on all available evidence.
Following an extensive review of historical documents, Ministers have now accepted the Ombudsman’s finding that maladministration occurred, and that this contributed to delays in sending letters to women born in the 1950s. The Government has rightly repeated its apology for this failure. However, it does not believe that compensation would be appropriate. The Government argues that an earlier letter would not have made a difference to what most women knew about their own SPA. In other words, given the vast majority of 1950s-born women already knew the SPA was increasing, a flat-rate compensation scheme, at a cost of up to £10.3 billion to the public finances, would simply not be fair, proportionate or reasonable.
The Government is absolutely committed to supporting women in retirement, and thanks to the triple lock, the State Pension will rise by £575 this year.
I do recognise, however, that lessons need to be learnt from what has happened to ensure everyone can properly plan for their retirement. Information about any future changes to the SPA must be communicated in a timely and targeted way, and Ministers are working with the Ombudsman to develop an action plan for the future.
Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue.
Best wishes
Rt Hon Hilary Benn
MP for Leeds South
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
[email protected] l www.hilarybennmp.com l X @hilarybennmp