DWP slammed again after WASPI scandal as 10,000 pensioners urged to check for bungle
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In a damning statement, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsmansaid the department was “failing to learn from its mistakes”. The Department for Work and Pensions has been criticised for more failures of communication after its much-maligned handling of the WASPI pension changes.
![[Adrian Furnival, 82, says he and his wife were worried about “making ends meet”]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/14/16/Untitled-design-%2810%29.jpg)
In a damning statement, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), Rebecca Hilsenrath, said the department was “failing to learn from its mistakes” as she revealed the case of a pensioner who was not told for eight years about a change to his payments that would leave him £3,000 a year worse off.
![[DWP secretary Liz Kendall (Lucy North/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/16/57a8fdb3c5a7de6d4eca3ae9c539593fY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM0NTM5NjEx-2.78512559.jpg)
She urged the more than 10,000 pensioners who were on the scheme before it ended in 2020 to contact the DWP if they’d fallen victim to the bungle. In December, the DWP accepted the PHSO’s finding of maladminstration in how it communicated changes to the state pension age to women born in the 1950s – many of whom campaigned for justice under the WASPI group. The DWP apologised following the report and said it will work with the Obudsman to ensure future changes are communicated well.
However, the department stopped short of accepting the recommendation to compensate those affected with secretary Liz Kendall saying the £10.5 billion cost of full compensation would not be proportionate “given the great majority of women knew that the State Pension Age was increasing.”.
In Ms Hilsenrath’s latest findings relating to DWP conduct, Adrian Furnival, 82, found out in 2018 via an annual statement from the DWP that he would no longer receive Adult Dependency Increase (ADI) in two years. The change would make him over £250 a month worse off. He had been living in Brittany since 1994 with his wife Sheila, 67.
