Women Against State Pension Injustice (WASPI) campaigners in Ayrshire believe that their campaign has reached an important milestone.

Emma Reynolds, the Under-Secretary of State for Pensions, has agreed to meet WASPI representatives next month.

On March 21 this year, the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman published his final report.

It announced that the Department for Work and Pensions was guilty of maladministration because it failed to provide proper information to 1950s women about delays to their State Pension age, that the women involved suffered injustice as a result, and that they should receive compensation.

Lynne Paterson, co-ordinator of the Ayrshire WASPI Group, said: “For the first time there will be a face-to-face meeting with a Minister.

“Injustice has been proven and we are due compensation. The government must understand the urgency of this matter.

"One 1950s woman dies every 13 minutes, so we need the compensation scheme now. There is no time to lose.”

In 1995 and 2011, the governments of the day introduced increases of the State Pension Age from 60 to 66 for women born in the 50s - but did not notify them.

Some women were written to in 2009, 14 years after the first change, but letters were then stopped until 2012. Many women received no notice at all.

Those who did get letters had very little time to prepare for such a major change to their retirement plans. This lack of notice has now been found by the Ombudsman to be maladministration.