Update on Fair State Pensions for WASPI women
Dear Supporter
We can now tell you more about where we are in our legal challenge. Things have taken a frustratingly long time, but we continue to do everything we can to ensure that we progress as quickly as the legal system allows and to ensure that we get the best possible outcome for all WASPI women.
Maladministration claims and the ICEYou may have seen reported on Twitter or elsewhere that the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) has rejected the first WASPI complaint she investigated. This was not unexpected, and it now allows the complaint to go forward to the Parliamentary Ombudsman as we intended.
We consider that the ICE's investigation and response to the first complaint to be wholly inadequate. It adopts an inappropriately narrow view of maladministration, ignores key evidence (set out in WASPI's guide to maladministration) and seeks to blame the complainant for the failures of the DWP.
WASPI had also repeatedly asked the ICE to investigate a representative sample of complainants so as to ensure all relevant issues were addressed. The ICE, however, repeatedly refused and instead investigated one arbitrarily selected complaint. It is therefore unsurprising that the first investigation leaves many issues unaddressed. Although there may be similarities, no two women's circumstances are the same. Accordingly, even on the ICE's own analysis (which WASPI considers fundamentally flawed), it cannot be assumed that other women's complaints will not be upheld.
WASPI is therefore continuing to engage with the ICE and the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to work towards a comprehensive and fair investigation of all relevant issues. If the ICE will not agree to quickly investigate a representative sample, WASPI will seek to take these matters directly to the Ombudsman to reduce delay.
Women who have made complaints to the DWP will have been told that the DWP now has received so many letters of complaint that they have found it necessary to set up a separate unit to deal exclusively with them.
Correspondence with the DWPWe have also finally received a response, almost four months later, to our letter to the DWP seeking reasonable and appropriate reparations for the harm done by the DWP's failure properly to communicate the changes. That response, unsurprisingly, fails entirely to acknowledge and engage with the DWP's own failures, and rejects WASPI's suggestions for unsustainable reasons, including by claiming that they have been considered before, when this was not necessarily the case.
WASPI will continue to engage with the DWP and we still have the option to bring about a judicial review challenge if and when we need to.
It's not too late to make a claim of maladministration against the DWPWe still need to get as many women as possible to make their maladministration claims in order to demonstrate to the DWP the level and scale of the unfairness that has been caused. Already, as commented on earlier, they have remarked on the large volume of complaints received in comparison to their usual workload, and we need to see everyone complaining.
Think of these complaints as our ammunition in the political and legal battle, and remember, if your complaint is upheld by the Ombudsman, they can recommend that the Government restore you to the same financial position as if the maladministration hadn't happened. If you haven't started your maladministration complaint yet, please do so now. If you have started your complaint, then please continue to pursue it.
Full details of how to do this are in the Guide to Complaints on our web page,
http://www.waspi.co.uk/action and your local WASPI group will also be able to help you with this; again their details are on our web page.
We will be in touch again as soon as there is anything new to report.
WASPI
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