An estimated 3,000 Norfolk women will, by the end of the year, have died awaiting pension compensation, new figures show.

And campaigners said that stark figure will increase the longer the government fails to recompense women affected by changes to state pensions.

Changes to the state pension age saw women born in the 1950s left with an additional six-year wait before receiving their state pensions - leaving many faced with dire financial straits or forced to continue working.

Last year, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman confirmed the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) "did not get it right" in making women aware of these changes from 2005 onwards - and that amounted to maladministration.

The process to assess what recommendations, including potential compensation, the ombudsman would make to remedy it is ongoing.

But research commissioned by campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) shows 220,190 women will have died in the seven years since their campaign to get justice began.

Eastern Daily Press: Debbie De Spon, Norfolk WASPI co-ordinator.Debbie De Spon, Norfolk WASPI co-ordinator. (Image: WASPI)

Debbie de Spon, Norfolk WASPI co-ordinator, said: "Approximately 3,050 Norfolk women will have died in the seven years of campaigning without having received any compensation for the maladministration by the DWP not informing them adequately of the changes to their state pension age.

"This number will only increase the longer the government delay."

She said Norwich South MP Clive Lewis had been supportive and North Norfolk MP Duncan Baker had expressed his understanding of the issue.

But she urged: "Women must lobby their MPs hard to show them the shocking impact of not being properly informed of up to a six year wait for their state pension."

Eastern Daily Press: Waveney MP Peter AldousWaveney MP Peter Aldous (Image: Archant)

Waveney MP Peter Aldous co-chairs the State Pension Inequality for Women All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), which earlier this year made a submission to the ombudsman for "fast and proper" compensation.

The Conservative MP said: "The so-called WASPI women were victims of successive governments' systemic shortcomings dating from 2005, maladministration, and a failure to comply with the civil service code in their communications concerning the planned changes."