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State Retirement Pensions: Women

Asked by Steve DarlingLiberal DemocratDepartment for Work and PensionsTabled Answered 8 January 2025UIN 21728

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of State Pension age changes on the six sample cases in the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's report entitled Women’s State Pension age: our findings on injustice and associated issues, HC 638, published on 21 March 2024.

Answered by Emma Reynolds

The six sample complainants were impacted by State Pension age changes introduced by both the Pensions Act 1995 and the Pensions Act 2011.

The Ombudsman did not investigate the decisions to increase the State Pension age for women in 1995, or to accelerate that increase in 2011. The Ombudsman are clear that policy decisions to increase the State Pension age in 1995 onwards were taken by Parliament and considered lawful by the Courts and were not within their remit to consider.

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