Midlothian MP hails step forward for WASPI campaign

He is pleased with the findings from the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report, which confirmed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) were too slow to contact women born in the 1950s about the retirement age rises.

MP Owen Thompson (SNP) said: "This report gives even greater urgency to the long-running campaign for fairness for 1950s born women.

"It confirms what millions of WASPI women across the UK have been telling the government for years - that the DWP did not make them aware of the rises to their pension age in time to let them adjust their financial plans.

"The UK Government were far too slow to act even when they knew a significant proportion of people affected were not aware of the changes.

"Instead, they were content to let 1950s born women bear the brunt of the change and struggle in poverty.

"This report will hopefully be a step closer to justice for the thousands of women in Midlothian who were badly impacted.

"I have hosted local WASPI meetings and raised their cases many times in parliament, but time and again their stories of hardship fell on deaf ears. Hopefully this report's findings will make it much, much harder for the government to deny or ignore their cause.”

He added: "The UK Government must now act with greater urgency and do the right thing for the women who were left to struggle financially through their department's failings.

"This report should be a wake-up call - they cannot keep ignoring the plight of women who bore the financial burden of the maladministered State Pension changes.

"They are not going away, and I will stand with them every step of the way."