WASPI appeal fails

Retirement seemed to be something in the very far distant future when I was in my 20s, Doodledog and I was happy to have the much-needed cash at the time anyway.

Or Doodle even

Foodke it was NOT cheaper for them - where on earth did you get that from? I checked my facts as I always do and employers paid the sane.

In that case, Callistemon, I think there is a case for being mis-sold. Even if it comes down to 'your word against theirs', the fact that it was cheaper for them shows that they stood to gain.

Sorry, I realise now that my last post sounded snippy, and it wasn't meant to be at all. It's a much more general principle for me.

I'd never heard of a 'marriage gratuity', but it sounds very dodgy. I know that when I left the civil service at the age of 20 or so I was able to claim back the superannuation I had paid in. I am guessing that this would have been offered so that the employer also got their contributions back.

Very few people would have thought about pensions at that age, and in any case, the deal was that we needed to pay in for 30 years and retired at 60, so at 20 we had ten years in hand. Employers will have known this, and by the sound of it were playing on that when they offered these 'concessions'.

That's why our employer was having an enthusiastic push to get all the female married women signed up before it finished.
All becomes clear now.

suziewoozie

The MWS stopped in 1977 for new entrants. Employers always paid the same for every employee.

Yes I meant 1967 should have had my glasses on lol!!!

I think that everyone should be responsible for themselves (or that a couple should sort out arrangements privately between them) and nobody should have either taxable income or benefit entitlement (or pensions) dependent on their partner's situation or contributions.

I worked, paid tax, had my own bank account but our employer assured us all that we would receive our state pension based on our husbands' contributions. Perhaps we were young and naive. I certainly realised later on so I do have a reasonable state pension based on my own contributions.

We were lied to, Doodledog.
As were women civil servants who had their pension contributions returned to them as a 'marriage gratuity' as a matter of course.

The MWS stopped in 1977 for new entrants. Employers always paid the same for every employee.

I remember my Mother telling me in 1987 when I got married pay your own stamp not MWS good advice

Was it cheaper for the employer if a woman paid the married woman's stamp? If so, there may be a case for it being mis-sold, on the lines of PPI or other financial products.

I was married in 1980, and can't remember if the MWS was still available then, but suspect not. I doubt that I would have paid it, though, as I have never agreed with being treated as a household for financial purposes. I think that everyone should be responsible for themselves (or that a couple should sort out arrangements privately between them) and nobody should have either taxable income or benefit entitlement (or pensions) dependent on their partner's situation or contributions.

Sadly, in my opinion, it’ll be the last gasp saloon Pantglas.

Just read that they intend taking this matter up to the Supreme Court! So it’s not over .....yet!

EllanVannin

Before 2016 nobody was required to work beyond 30 years for their pension which back then was £134.
When you think about it it's still paltry for working an extra 5/6 years.

Women needed to have 39 years of contributions for a full pension and it was 42 years for men.

That is why so many older women do not receive a full pension as they either were persuaded to pay the
Married Woman's stamp or gave up work for a while to raise a family.

We were robbed !

I'm one of the unfortunate WASPI's

Before 2016 nobody was required to work beyond 30 years for their pension which back then was £134.
When you think about it it's still paltry for working an extra 5/6 years.

And I paid into an NHS occupational pension which I get £xxx each month.

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

I got mine 2 months ago.
£172 per week x 52 weeks = £8,944

??

It is well worth it for everyone who hasn’t done so to check the website to see what they will get.

Yes, it is. I checked online back in July to discover that the contributions I made to the German scheme in the two years I spent working there back in the 1970s haven't been credited and I am showing as having no contributions in those years. This wasn't mentioned in the pension statement I requested five years ago. My DH worked for the same company at the same time and his contributions were credited (as they should have been, we were in what was then the EEC).

I have sent the DWP four emails and a letter regarding this since July and have had no response apart from an email three weeks ago asking for my full name and date of birth (which I'd already given).

I can see that this might run and run.....

They had 25 years' notice. Every responsible citizen has a duty to find out what's going on.
The government has admitted that they did not inform women about the changes. People on here have told you that they were not informed.

I know that I didn't get a letter (I asked for details of any and all correspondence about my pension under FOI and was told that I had not been sent any). I did hear about it, but I can't remember how - I assume on Moneybox or similar - and I absolutely believe those who say that they did not hear at the time.

Are you suggesting that they are irresponsible, or in dereliction of duty not to read financial news or listen to programmes about pensions? It is up to the government to inform people, not up to us to find things out.

How would you suggest that women should be compensated for the years of workplace discrimination that we suffered, if not through pensions? Or do you think that we don't deserve to have it acknowledged at all?

It is well worth it for everyone who hasn’t done so to check the website to see what they will get. I have been paying voluntary contributions to cover my COPE amount (the contributions for the years I was contracted out), and if I continue to do so I will get the full state pension. If I hadn’t realised there was a shortfall (even after 44 years of full contributions) I would have got a lot less.

It is a minefield- any periods of non-contributions (eg maternity, gaps in employment, term-time contracts and so on) can result in contributions not being counted, as only ‘full years’ add to your contributions. Those who got NI paid because they were bringing up children or in benefits can end up with more full years than those who worked for decades - it is not straightforward, so do check your own record and assume nothing. You can question anything that doesn’t tally with your own records, but it is better to do this ahead of time, as if can take a while to get answers.

If you are planning on retiring before you are 66, do so in April, to get another full year, as retiring in February will mean that you have made 10 or 11 payments that don’t get counted. Speak to the government pensions advice service, or get private financial advice if you haven’t already done so and are over 55. The earlier you know your position, the easier it will be to plug any gaps.

www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs19_state_pension_fcs.pdf

This is a very useful factsheet about state pensions.

I know I made 2 years contributions to the Local Government Pension Scheme and about 4 years contributions to a personal pension but I haven’t had any deductions taken from my state pension.

I knew in 1995 I would have to work until I was 63 and a half before I got a state pension and I accepted that but it was 2011 changes in pension age which annoyed me.

Doodledog

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?

They had 25 years' notice. Every responsible citizen has a duty to find out what's going on.

Gwyneth

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.

No, I didn't expect to. I read newspapers and watch the news, including the budget. It was all over the news at the time with loads of readers' letters.

Jane10

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. ?

There was tapering. The first people to have a retirement age of 66 are from this year. Up to now, there has been a taper.