Oxfordshire campaigners marched on parliament calling for compensation for women who lost out on years of state pension payments when the retirement age was raised.

Women expecting to retire at 60 were told they would have to wait longer when changes to the state pension age were accelerated in 2010.

In 2018 the retirement age for women rose to 65, in line with men.

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Many women made big life plans based on when they thought they were getting their state pension - which then proved to be wrong - leaving them in financial hardship as they waited extra years to receive their pension.

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Waspi women, the Women Against State Pension Inequality, argue that they were not given enough time to prepare for the changes.

And they say the Department for Work and Pensions failed to communicate them properly, so some women were completely in the dark. 

Research conducted by the WASPI group suggests that 3.6 million women, mostly born in the 1950s, had their retirement plans thrown into disarray.

Since 2015, 269,329 Waspi women have died waiting for pension compensation. 

An independent investigation was launched by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) five years ago and the group are expecting a key decision on their fight for compensation in March or April.

WASPI said: "Because of the way the increases were brought in, women born in the 1950s - on or after April 6 1950 to April 5, 1960 - have been hit particularly hard.

"Significant changes to the age we receive our state pension have been imposed upon us with a lack of appropriate notification, with little or no notice and much faster than we were promised some of us have been hit by more than one increase.

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"Women were given as little as one year's notice of up to a six-year increase to their state pension age, compared to men who received six year's notice of a one-year rise to their state pension age.

"Many women report receiving no letter ever and others say letters were sent to the wrong address despite notifying the DWP of the address change."

The DWP said: "The government decided over 25 years ago that it was going to make the state pension age the same for men and women.

"Both the High Court and Court of Appeal have supported the actions of the DWP, under successive governments dating back to 1995, and the Supreme Court refused the claimants permission to appeal."