State Pension Age: Women

8. Whether his Department plans to take steps to compensate women affected by changes in the state pension age.

State pension age equalisation has been the policy of successive Governments, and as the hon. Lady knows, the phasing in of state pension age increases was agreed to by her party in 2011 and 2014.

One of the very first issues raised with me by constituents when I was elected in 2017 was the inequality faced by women born in the 1950s, yet in the almost six years since then, this Government have done nothing to fix that. Given that the ombudsman has concluded that the Department for Work and Pensions was at fault in its administration, will the Government commit to fulfilling the ombudsman’s recommendations? In the meantime, will the Minister encourage the Scottish Government to use the powers they have to alleviate the suffering of such women?

As the hon. Lady knows, the ombudsman’s investigation is ongoing, so unfortunately I cannot comment further—other than what is in the public domain—at this stage.

Of course, the other side of the coin, whether for females or males, is to not leave the workplace too soon. Will my hon. Friend therefore support my initiative to work with our excellent Gloucester Jobcentre Plus in holding an event specifically for the over-50s, both females and males, to see what opportunities our local employers can come forward with? Would one of the Ministers perhaps join me there to support that initiative?

My hon. Friend does sterling work in his constituency. [Interruption.] The Minister for Employment, my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman), has just indicated that he would be delighted to join my hon. Friend in Gloucester.