Injustice of Women’s pension age increasing by 6 years

They relied on women not making a fuss. They were right. I would think that it would not hurt to show some support now. Many women have been denied £000s of pounds by the way this change has been introduced.

Whoopeee . You are right MamaCaz I can now retire at 67 ( although this is under review apparently) . Still 7 years later than DH and I hoped and planned and he will still have to work until 77 !

I am also one of those women who did not receive any notification about the changes to my state pension retirement age, born in 1956 so now getting it at age 66. I do not recall being offered a married women's reduced contribution when I married in 1979, had it ceased by then? Anyway, I paid full contributions so did not benefit from a little extra cash when we really needed it to save for our first house.

When I divorced in 2002, I did get a share of my husbands CTV of his pension but we factored in my supposed earlier retirement age. However, as I have worked for many years, I am lucky enough to have a decent work pension so am not having to continue working while I wait for my state pension. Who knows what will happen to it before 2020!

I do not recall being offered a married women's reduced contribution when I married in 1979, had it ceased by then?
I don't know, it was in about 1968 when we were 'told' that this would be what would be happening unless we 'opted out' - which was pointless, apparently.

I paid full contributions when I went back to work.

I do not remember ever having any official advice from anyone. It was just women talking in the office. We ranged from copy typists to women like me with degrees who were part of the management team and the subject was always hotly debated whenever someone got married. Mostly the decision was in favour of keeping paying full stamp.

The deciding points for me were firstly, one of the things you lost if you went on to MWS was maternity benefits so I was determined to keep paying for the benefits that would accrue there. Secondly, I wanted to have a pension in my own right and not as an appendage to my husband. I never had any intention of being a stay at home mother for longer than absolutely necessary, so knew I would be back at work and making pension contributions within a decade.

The lower rate option for married women ended in 1977.

When I married in 1970, my mother told me in no way to consider the ‘Married woman’s stamp”. She had and bitterly regretted it as she would not get a pension in her own right, but would need to wait until my father retired which would be when she was 68. As it was she carried on working until she was 77 because she enjoyed her job.
I agree that those of us who were fortunate enough to be paid our pension at 60 should be more supportive of those who are not. Without wishing to rub it in, I carried on teaching until I was 63, but was able to claim the pension I would have been paid as a lump sum or an increased pension when I finally did claim it.

I'd no notification from the DWP either about my SPA going up to 64, and then jumping again to 66. Even if I'd had a letter, I'd still be angry about the way equalisation has been implemented in the UK. In other countries the slide to an equal pension age has been much more gradual, and spread out over many years, so no one loses out to the extent that we have. To add insult to injury, some of us in England don't receive our free bus passes until state pension age, whereas I believe those in the other countries of the UK, in London and in many other local authority areas still get theirs at 60.

Also, many people think we'll at least get the higher state pension brought in last year, when in fact very few people who ever opted out will be entitled to this.

I am not a WASPI lady but still feel angry?
when we started work we expected to retire at 60 and this was not introduced gradually! Also people speak of equalising with men, but don’t take into account the unpaid work women do along side or instead of paid employment which men rarely have to do,such as looking after young children, or caring for elderly relatives.in a fair world this would have more credited contributions attached to it (I know there are some credited for staying with children,and in certain circumstances carers contributions) but certainly these are capped, and don’t take into account looking after a child you aren’t getting child benefit for, such as a grandchild. The carers credits have very tight and specific qualifying conditions.
So many people will miss out especially if you don’t have good private pensions which so many of us don’t have.

Many men do unpaid work alongside employment, especially nowadays. In the past - and now - men looked after and maintained their homes, did repairs to household contents from toys to furniture. In the past many had allotments or large gardens where they grew much of the households fruit and veg to supplement the food which many households struggled to buy. Many did hard manual labour in their gardens after after long punishing days of hard labour in factories, docks and mining.

I find all these you did, we did, arguments about who suffered most or is most hard done by a waste of time . When evening up a situation, someone will lose out in the short term. If there is to be an even playing field then both sides have to give.

However I do think the evening up process has been badly organised, badly done over far too short a period and that those affected by it have not been treated fairly, however the actual adjustment of retirement ages was a necessary step.

I was born in 1959, so I'll need to work until I'm 66 - another 7 years. I can't say I relish the thought of that.

Ditto ,Justalaugh I no longer work as I look after grandchildren and I he!p with my
Mil (93) care
My husband is retired and instead of retiring next year we will either have to down size or use savings until I get my state pension at 66 +

While men were toiling in the garden or on the allotment who was cleaning and cooking at home? I still feel that women have tended to be working 24/7 with never a holiday! There is no end of the day for childcare or looking after elderly relatives, house work is a non stop 7 day a week task and then there is the paid work on top! I accept there are many hard working men but I remember my own father who after he arrived home from his office would potter in the shed (To no discernible effect) and who would do the washing up after the meal which had been cooked by my mother who was also working! He wasn’t the worse by a long way! he would if specifically asked run the hoover around and hang washing out or bring it in, however any task had to be specifically allocated he would not independently think of it! He sometimes picked up a forgotten item of shopping on the way home from the station and once a week when my mother went to play bridge he would cook a very basic supper! This had nothing to do with any traditionalist views as he always encouraged me to believe that I could do anything any male could do and hugely supported me in everything. It was more to do with the expectations of his generation who assumed that certain tasks would fall to their wives! If asked to do one of these tasks he would cheerfully do it but I believe that he worked less hard than my mother who seemed never to stop! Her day was getting the pack lunch for my father on rising, and my breakfast then dropping me off at school to drive to work, after work it was homework, dinner prep,clearing kitchen, a quick bit of housework, bath for me and bed; then sitting to do mending or ironing,then bed and repeat ! whereas father had time to potter and read the papers and shout at the radio!

We always intended to retire the same week, Cherrytree, as DH turned 65 a four days after I turned 60. Well, we did retire from the workplace together, but until I get my pension on my 66th birthday we'll have to draw on the savings we'd set by for our retirement. I was never going to carry on working when I'd promised my DC that I would help out with childcare - we'd two baby DGS by then and we now have four. I count myself very lucky that I've been able to look after them - there are plenty of other women who are much worse off.

I never saw my DF sitting down or relaxing if my mother was doing anything domestic. He would be with her assisting. He dusted and hoovered, for example, while she prepared meals. He also cooked. He was the breakfast chef at weekends, but fed us well when she was in hospital when my youngest sister was born. My mother certainly did not work from dusk to dawn, even when she was working.

My memories of evenings in my childhood is of them sitting down together listening to the radio, chatting and doing crosswords. I used to lie in bed and found the muffled sound of radio and voices coming through the floor comforting and relaxing. The sound of security.

I must be a real slacker, because housework has never been a 7 day occupation for me either and even with young children and later older people to care for, I managed to find plenty of time to follow my own interests and hobbies, as well as working. Obviously there were sometimes pinch points, but those arrive even if you are single and childless.

I have never done GC care, I live too far away, but DS and DDiL, even with the other grandmother nearby, tried not to ask her to do much care because she was nearly 80 and juggled the care themselves.

To those who say that WASPI women were well aware of the deferred pension age..... this one (born in 1954) most certainly was not. When I was 58 I received the one and only letter from Pensions Agency, advising me that my pension age had been deferred from 60 to 62. I never heard form them, or anyone else in an official capacity, again. The only way I knew about my SPA being deferred, twice more, was by being told by a colleague and on social media. On the last occassion that I checked the gov website, my SPA had been extended again, almost overnight, by another 18 months, to 65.5. Just how were the 500,000 women affected by this change supposed to organise their finances, when their SPAs were deferred in 18 months stages, without notifying them or giving them time to make adequate financial arrangements? I have no problem at all with the SPA being extended and being the same as a man's SPA; but this was rushed through so quickly, and with virtually no information given to those affected first, that 1950s women have borne the brunt of it.

I am also a 1954 birthday and won’t receive my state pension until May 2019. So I am one of those who have borne the brunt of the changes with not written notification. I saw a figure of £42,000 mentioned as the amount of pension we will have lost out on due to the change from 60 to 66. It is so unfair.

I too was born in 54 and my DWP retirement age is May 2020. Whilst many have mentioned women working as long as men is seen to be fair, it is only now that the Gender Pay Alignment is taking place. I am still working full time and always have done so, apart from a few child rearing years, but NEVER had an opportunity to earn similar pay to a man. So IMO it's not all fair as my private pension contributions amount to a pitiful sum. Surely to be fair we should take into account salaries earned over the same period, not to mention lack of provision of child care back in the day which resulted in a lot of women taking lower paid part time jobs to juggle it all. Your thoughts?

I was one of the last who was allowed to claim my state pension at 60 and I have masses of sympathy for those who now find themselves having to work for quite a few years more, disrupting whatever plans they may have made. I do believe it was the right thing to do to equalise the pension age between men and women, but I think it could have been done much more gradually, especially since many of our generation were unable to pay National Insurance or get credits while we were raising babies and caring for young children. Then, to hasten the increase in pension age for both men and women – probably an ill-thought-out policy – so quickly afterwards was a real kick in the teeth. So yes, at least some of us who were granted that which we were promised, still feel the sense of injustice to those who weren't, especially the "younger oldies" who are facing a massive injustice.

I agree that this has been handled appallingly. The timescale is far too short. Ridiculously short, and I’m surprised it hasn’t gone to the European Court. But I don’t entirely understand how those born in the 50s escaped hearing about it. It prominent on the news and current affairs programmes, but apart from moaning about it nothing seemed to happen. I think the whole government on all sides colluded and went along with it. The usual protest - but not too much.

I was one of the lucky ones, but I knew about the rise in pension age. Three years before I was due to retire I asked for a pension forecast and was pleasantly surprised. I got credit for the time off child rearing, and even my stints as playground dinner lady counted for something. I was able to pay a lump sum to make up lost years. It’s worth getting a forecast, finding out your options and not taking anything for granted.

Our DC say they aren’t expecting to retire until 70+ and, including in-law offspring, only two out of the six will have any sort of private pension worth having. They just don’t earn enough to pay in the extra required. I fear for how they will manage and only hope they’ll be something left for them in the inheritance pot. Going into care is becoming less and less an option.

Changes to State Pension age from 65 to 66

People born between 6 December 1953 and 5 October 1954 will reach State Pension age between 65 and 66.

People born between 6 October 1954 and 5 April 1960 will have a State Pension age of 66.

Changes to State Pension age from 66 to 67
People born between 6 April 1960 and 5 March 1961 will reach State Pension age between 66 and 67.

People born between 6 March 1961 and 5 April 1977 will have a State Pension age of 67.

Changes to State Pension age from 67 to 68
People born between 6 April 1977 and 5 April 1978 will reach State Pension age between 67 and 68.

People born on or after 6 April 1978 will have a State Pension age of 68.

This from gov website

My ‘children’ will retire at 67.

jenpax your post sounds just like it was in our house.My father did hardly anything in the house after work or atweekends. It was just accepted back in the day unfortunately by many women.

I've read this with interest, I'm aged 63 so will have another 2 yrs and a half . I have no private pension, I don't know if my late husband had anything and I don't know who to ask. I'm going to be dependant upon the social. I'm not looking forward tothat

I can’t retire for another 13 years which is 6 years longer than I expected. I really worry about this as I have been gravely ill this year and am still very incapacitated! I worry that I won’t be physically able to stagger on another 13 years?
The Government has made it very unpleasant and draconian for those people who can’t work due to ill health as regards any state benefits and I worry about having to leave work and rely on them?