Government response to the Parliamentary and Health Service
Ombudsman's investigation into Women's State Pension age and
associated issues.
Government's new decision:
Women's State Pension age communications
Government response to the
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's investigation into
Women's State Pension age and associated issues
Details
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO)
investigated complaints from women born in the 1950s that the
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) failed to provide
them with accurate, adequate and timely information about changes
to the State Pension age and the number of qualifying years
needed to claim the full rate of the new State Pension. The
PHSO also
looked at DWP's and the
Independent Case Examiner's complaint handling.
The PHSO managed
their investigation in stages. In July 2021, the PHSOpublished
their findings on State Pension age maladministration and a final
report was published in March 2024.
The
PHSO's published findings are available on their
website.
The government responses
On 17 December 2024, the Secretary of State announced the
Government's response to the PHSO
report: oral statement to
Parliament.
On 11 November 2025, the Secretary of State announced that the
Government would retake the decision about communications on
State Pension age because new information had come to light.
On 29 January 2026, the Secretary of State announced the
Government's new response as it relates to communications on
State Pension age.
The Government response of 29 January 2026 replaces the part of
the Government response of 17 December 2024 that relates to the
communications on State Pension age.
