WASPI appeal fails

I am one of the women affected. The back to 60 group were never going to be able to ‘turn the clock back’ and return pensions to 60 for women. I agree that the pension age for men and women should be equal. What I am upset about is that I and others were not given any notice that this was happening and therefore could not plan for retirement. I believe that legally you have to be given 10 years notice before major changes are made to pensions.
The other point I would like to make is that older people particularly women are discounted and not valued in society. Only trendy ‘woke’ causes need apply!

Jane10

PS I received a letter 'inviting' (!) me to apply for my State pension later this year. Hallelujah. About time too. 6 years late.

So did I Jane. I have a December birthday.

growstuff whilst it may be the case that on average a group of people are, or are not poor is not the point. We paid NI on the understanding that we would get a pension at 60. If an insurance company decided not to pay out to those with more than £x, or with lower than average housing costs, they would rightly be in breach of the law.

I never thought the case had a chance. I would have liked to get the pension money backdated to 60 but there was no chance the Government would ever do this.
I do think the case should have concentrated on the post 53 women who had so many extra years added without much notice. I'm just grateful that I only had to work 2 years extra.

Governments of all shades change the goalposts all the time. Caring for a dying husband, I was asked by his Care Needs Worker whether I had applied for Carer’s Allowance. On her next visit she brought forms and I made an application for CA of which I had no previous knowledge. Imagine my surprise to receive a letter from the relevant authority to the effect “you are carer but not entitled to carer’s allowance since you are already in receipt of another benefit”. It turns out the state pension for which I had worked and paid for over 40 years had suddenly become a ‘benefit’. I arranged to see my local Labour MP, not because I needed the money, but because I was incensed by the claim my state pension an unearned benefit. He told me his government never intended Carer’s Allowance as a universal benefit it was introduced in order to reduce the unemployment figures. In addition, he went on to tell me of a constituent, aged 83, caring for a 40-year-old mentally disabled daughter, living jointly on the mother’s state pension.

Before this, I saw what happened to my own mother widowed at 57 – it certainly taught me the lesson of governmental duplicity.

Do not rely on anyone other than yourself.

I attended some of our local WASPI meetings and as I recall they were focused as GrandmaMoira suggests on women post 53. I also heard some very distressing examples of women who having finished work, and expecting their pension at 60 were now looking after grandchildren and caring for elderly parents at the same time, thus saving the government a great deal of money. They were now having to survive on their savings for the next six years. Others, were trying to re-enter the job market again but were finding it very difficult due to their age. It was very sad and in my opinion women really have been ‘taken for a ride’ re pensions.

I too never thought it had a chance, but worth a try.

I get mine this month - 6 years late!

Pantglas2

Do you lose SERPS Growstuff?

I don’t (such as it is for a part timer) as it showed on my 2017 pension forecast - they also showed my COPE figure which should have been (but wasn’t) covered by my private pension supplier.

Regardless, I’m another who was aware of the 60>65 increase announced in the mid nineties, but had the 65>66 sprung on me with only 10 years notice which I believe isn’t long enough (for men or women) to replace that £9000+ through investment.

Yes, I do. I had a period of my working life when I wasn't paying into an occupational pension. Under the old system, I would have received SERPs for those years. The government claims that the higher state pension compensates me for that. However, I won't receive the full state pension, despite 47 years of contributions in my own name. I have also lost out on Working Tax Credit for the years from age 60-66 because the eligibility was changed.

Pantglas2

Do you lose SERPS Growstuff?

I don’t (such as it is for a part timer) as it showed on my 2017 pension forecast - they also showed my COPE figure which should have been (but wasn’t) covered by my private pension supplier.

Regardless, I’m another who was aware of the 60>65 increase announced in the mid nineties, but had the 65>66 sprung on me with only 10 years notice which I believe isn’t long enough (for men or women) to replace that £9000+ through investment.

£9000? You won't receive £9000 for a year's pension.

Gwyneth

I am one of the women affected. The back to 60 group were never going to be able to ‘turn the clock back’ and return pensions to 60 for women. I agree that the pension age for men and women should be equal. What I am upset about is that I and others were not given any notice that this was happening and therefore could not plan for retirement. I believe that legally you have to be given 10 years notice before major changes are made to pensions.
The other point I would like to make is that older people particularly women are discounted and not valued in society. Only trendy ‘woke’ causes need apply!

People were given 10 years notice.

Doodledog

growstuff whilst it may be the case that on average a group of people are, or are not poor is not the point. We paid NI on the understanding that we would get a pension at 60. If an insurance company decided not to pay out to those with more than £x, or with lower than average housing costs, they would rightly be in breach of the law.

You didn't sign up for any "understanding" when you paid National Insurance.

Maybe I (and millions like me) didn’t sign a contract that specifically promised a quid pro quo; but custom and practice certainly was that women earned less than men, were usually the ones t take time out for childrearing and were often prohibited from joining occupational pension schemes if they worked part-time. I don’t know how anyone who worked in the 1970s can genuinely believe that things were equal between the sexes.

The payoff, such as it was, was that women retired earlier than men, and to remove that for women who paid NI for decades is shameful, in my opinion, when we were not given time to make other arrangements (if we could afford to, that is).

Those who did retire at 60 will never be put on the higher rate of pension which will be £175.20 per at the present rate, based on 35 qualifying years.

I had 33 qualifying years due to being cheated into paying a Married Womans Stamp for a few years when I was young. I receive about £55 less than that per week on the old rate of pension.

I remember the changes being talked about but thought that there would be some sort of tapering so eg I'd get my pension at 63 but no. A straight jump of 6 years. ?

growstuff

Pantglas2

Do you lose SERPS Growstuff?

I don’t (such as it is for a part timer) as it showed on my 2017 pension forecast - they also showed my COPE figure which should have been (but wasn’t) covered by my private pension supplier.

Regardless, I’m another who was aware of the 60>65 increase announced in the mid nineties, but had the 65>66 sprung on me with only 10 years notice which I believe isn’t long enough (for men or women) to replace that £9000+ through investment.

£9000? You won't receive £9000 for a year's pension.

Growstuff Almost £9000

£172.50 per week x 52 weeks = £8970 per year .

growstuff Did you receive a letter because I don’t recall receiving any notification. It was only when I asked for a pension forecast a couple of years before I was sixty that I found out that I wouldn’t receive my pension until 65 and then of course it was increased to 66.
Can I ask another question please. Do you receive your pension the month that you have your 66th birthday. Thanks in anticipation of a reply.

Gwyneth mine is due on my 66th birthday. You can see the date for yours, as well as how much you are likely to get by registering on the you.gov website here.

Thank you Doodledog will do that.

I got my pension in March 2018 and I get £203pw, this includes new state pension of £175.20 plus a protected payment of £28pw. Some people do get more than £9000pa.

A neighbour of mine gets over £14000 - he benefitted from SERPS and then when his wife died, ‘inherited’ part of her SERPS. That couldn’t happen now of course

That’s true Suziewoozie, if DH goes before me I’ll inherit 50% of his SERPS (as he will of mine, though worth a lot less!)

Callistemon

Those who did retire at 60 will never be put on the higher rate of pension which will be £175.20 per at the present rate, based on 35 qualifying years.

I had 33 qualifying years due to being cheated into paying a Married Womans Stamp for a few years when I was young. I receive about £55 less than that per week on the old rate of pension.

Many of us 50s women won’t get the “new” pension either, Calli. I got 41 years of NI payments in before I stopped working. But the many years I was opted out don’t count and my forecast under the new scheme was only around £100 (you can imagine how delighted I was when I read that!). Fortunately there’s a transition period in place so I’ll get what I would have been entitled to under the old scheme, which is about £130.

I’ll get it on my 66th birthday in three months time (hurrah!). If I’m spared, as my Methodist friend would add.

It's all a complete muddle.

Callistemon

It's all a complete muddle.

It is, and something that affects our lives in such a major way should not be so difficult to predict.

Women made financial decisions based one one set of (perfectly reasonable) expectations only to have them ripped up and altered when it was too late to change those decisions.

If we can’t trust our leaders to honour something so important, what can we trust them to do?

You won't get £9,000pa if you have paid into an occupational pension, not would you get that if you'd been on the old scheme.