1950s women "Fight Back Rally"

www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-insurance-credits-for-adults-who-care-for-a-child-under-12-fact-sheet/specified-adult-childcare-credits-fact-sheet

I haven’t said that anyone has lied. I do, however, criticise a lack of awareness - leaving all financial matters to ‘someone else’ and simply expecting a payout at a particular age. We all have to take responsibility for ourselves.

As I have said several times, the increased occupational pension through contracting out should more than compensate for a reduced state pension - people need to understand that overall they are better off.

The increased pension age has been so widely publicised - even in women’s magazines which anyone might pick up at the hairdressers - that I have zero sympathy for those who say they didn’t know and great envy for those whose contracted out years had the intended effect. Do these same women say they are unaware who the prime minister is and that there’s a war raging in Ukraine?

Good point, MM. Not only that, but if you find out too late that you have overpaid they won't refund you.

I have found that the people on the phone (if you can get through!) are very helpful. They can't give you advice, but if you ask them for a forecast based on buying x or y years as opposed to what it will be if you don't, they happily give out all the information, which can steer you in the right direction. I have made enquiries for several people, and have always found the call handlers patient and well-intentioned.

As I have said several times, the increased occupational pension through contracting out should more than compensate for a reduced state pension - people need to understand that overall they are better off.

What people 'need to understand' and what they do understand are not necessarily the same thing, though. Many people are shocked to learn that their state pension will be reduced because their employer contracted them out, whether you accept that or not. And it is, IMO, the responsibility of the government to communicate things so that the 'woman on the Clapham omnibus' is fully aware of any changes to government policy and how they will affect her.

Anyway, I think we have both made our respective points clearly enough, so I'll stop repeating myself, (for now, anyway ).

I think we need to remember women weren't even allowed to open their own bank accounts till 1975

It's not supposing to me that pensionable age women aren't as aware of their rights and expectations...

It's also probably why the divorce rate is so much bigger

The woman on the Clapham Omnibus may need to be told that she can’t have the icing as well as the cake. It seems, though, that she may be incapable of understanding.

Yes, the call handlers are very helpful, Doodle, and very tolerant of the fact that we’re not all experts. Nice people, in my experience. As you say, getting through to them can be a challenge - I spent many a happy half hour hanging on the line with my various queries during lockdown, and once even fell asleep waiting for someone to answer. I’m just glad that I’m (finally) retired and don’t have to worry about it any more.

VioletSky

I think we need to remember women weren't even allowed to open their own bank accounts till 1975

It's not supposing to me that pensionable age women aren't as aware of their rights and expectations...

It's also probably why the divorce rate is so much bigger

What? I opened my first bank account when I started work so my salary could be paid into it. That was 1968, I was 16. Like all new employees in my office I went to the local bank with my letter of appointment and a current account was opened and the bank contacted my Personnel Dept. with my account details. It didn't matter what your gender was, the process was the same. Also the divorce rate is so much bigger than what?. I despair that you are generalising about "pensionable women " all being so feeble. Are you saying that pensionable men are all aware of their rights and expectations?

Germanshepherdsmum It is weird how lacking in personal responsibility some people seem to be.

If all women couldn't do it, then women didn't have that right... not until the sex discrimination act came out in 1975.

I don't think women are feeble at all I think discrimination played a part in marriage for a long time and a lot of women left financial things up to their husbands... because at one point, there wasn't much choice.

I don't blame women if they didn't know about the change in pension age, because when they were young theworld worked differently

When they were young the world worked differently? You’re talking about women younger than me and you, VS, are young enough to be my daughter!

notgran

Germanshepherdsmum It is weird how lacking in personal responsibility some people seem to be.

Indeed.

Women of my mother’s generation I can understand - though she was not unaware or lacking in personal responsibility. Nor indeed was her own mother, born in the 1890s. For women of my generation there is no excuse.

I think it is 'weird' how some people just can't imagine that not everyone does things the way they do, or knows the things that they know.

Are you (both) saying the posters on this thread who have told you that they did not understand about opting out are weird? Or saying that it was 'weird' that if nobody told them they didn't somehow know that they should look it up?

Doodledog:

"I shall ignore the dig about transgender issues, growstuff."

What on earth are you going on about? I didn't make any digs about transgender issues!!

There has been lots of publicity about raising the pension age over the last few years so plenty of notice has been given. This is just like many years ago when women were given the choice to either pay a full stamp and eventually receive a pension in their own name or else continue to pay a smaller married woman's contribution and then when the latter group suddenly found they were not entitled to a full pension they were up in arms.

I am getting annoyed about this as the information has been out there for years about all the changes to ages and receipt of pensions. Women forget that men have also fallen foul of these changes. My OH expected his state pension at 65 as promised , worked non stop from 16 , 42 years with BT etc and then had to wait another year to 66 . I just feel for people who rely on the state pension for their income. It is nowhere near sufficient for an individual’s needs in today’s economic situation. I doubt this rally will make any difference but at least we have the freedom to hold one !

Its not just the age rules. My husband died a couple of years before my pensionable age and before he drew his own pension. When he died I contacted the pensions department to find out whether i would be able to clain pensionable years against his unclaimed pension as I knew that things were changing. I didn't have enough pensionable years to my own accound due to being one of the women who paid the "small stamp" because at the time the rules were that you could claim against your husband's years. coming back to the present day I was told unequivocally that yes I could claim against his years as he had died without claiming his pension...then the fun started. A year before I could claim my own pension and during the changeover period I checked again that my husband's years would count. The pensions office people were lovely and did me several manual forecasts as the automatic forecast system wouldn't work for those near to claiming their pension. Each one came out different. I spoke to the pensions office many times and was told "This is what the guidance says THIS WEEK. We don't know what we will be told next week or what the eventual answer will be. please keep phoning back" Eventually I got a forecast that was more than the minimum new rate but a bit less than I would have received under the old scheme. I have no idea how they worked out the amount but decided that as i would be taxed anyway (I have my husbands occupational pension) it wasn't worth arguing about. My college friend whose birthday falls in january (mine is august) got her pension a year before I did and got it assessed under the old scheme. I think its the utter shambles and inequality between different women that the waspis are complaining about.

knspol

There has been lots of publicity about raising the pension age over the last few years so plenty of notice has been given. This is just like many years ago when women were given the choice to either pay a full stamp and eventually receive a pension in their own name or else continue to pay a smaller married woman's contribution and then when the latter group suddenly found they were not entitled to a full pension they were up in arms.

I was one of those "small stamp" women and we were told at the time that if we were widowed. then we could claim against our husband's emplyment years!

I was told at the age of fifty-something that I would get my pension at the age of 64 1/2. Eighteen months later there was another letter saying, no actually, sixty-six. I consider myself pretty well-informed and politically savvy, but I genuinely did miss the original change (maybe I was too pre-occupied with small children and my late husband being made redundant). I knew that something had to be done but I thought that it would be more like splitting the difference at 63. I'm quite surprised we WASPIs weren't contacted directly by letter at the time.

Anyway, I'm now drawing my pension. Still working full time because my employers balked at how much it would cost to replace me, but at least I shall be going part-time in a couple of months, and will definitely be retired by the end of the year.

These Ladies are elderly now and need the support of younger Ladies, that’s us.
I’m ok doesn’t really help.
Saying that London will be busy is so lacking in support. Where is the Suffragette spirit? Sadly I think we’re witnessing weakness without a backbone.
Let’s live the strength we Ladies joyously and thankfully inherited and less of the ‘I'm ok brigade’

Please correct me if I am wrong but if say you paid into a Christmas Club all year with the agree that it would pay out in December then the organisation just announced it wouldn't be paying out after all wouldn't they be legally obliged to?
I paid out all that time expecting to get it in my pension at 60 then they just decided they wouldn't pay out and the contract you entered into was declared null & void?
That was my money.

Withnail

Please correct me if I am wrong but if say you paid into a Christmas Club all year with the agree that it would pay out in December then the organisation just announced it wouldn't be paying out after all wouldn't they be legally obliged to?
I paid out all that time expecting to get it in my pension at 60 then they just decided they wouldn't pay out and the contract you entered into was declared null & void?
That was my money.

But you never paid anything into an individual pension pot. You paid for your parents' generation's pensions.

Do you have the contract which states that you would receive your state pension at the age of 60?

I was affected by the rise in the pension age, but I was given plenty of notice, I cannot understand why some of us would be told and others not? I have always read everything official that pops through my letterbox, I do wonder if some of those claiming they had no notice are the same people that just throw brown envelopes in the bin.