1950s women "Fight Back Rally"

Hobbs1

I chose to retire at 60 as I had a decent workplace pension that I could take and after working full time for 45 years thought I’d have more than enough national insurance contributions for my state pension. I then applied for my state pension back in July 2022 in readiness for my 66th birthday in Sept. I had 45 years full National insurance contributions, but because I chose to retire at 60, I lost out on the new state pension, and my state pension is about £130 less as according to the DWP, I am 6 years short on my contributions. You only need 35 years, I have 45 so how does that work out 🤔.
However my friend who never worked full time from the age of 21, then only went part time for the last 20 years gets the full new state pension. A gross unfairness in my opinion to all of us who had to work full time to pay mortgages etc.
To add insult to injury, I also pay tax on my pension…….

That was nothing to do with your retirement at 60. It was because you had an occupational pension and had been "opted out". Even now, you could buy back some lost years, but you'd have to consider your personal circumstances to calculate whether it's worth it.

I am a waspi, born in the July of 1953, cut off date was April 1953.

I had no letter telling me that I couldn't get my pension until I was 65. Consequently, my job come to an end in July 2018 because I was 60 and an old age pensioner. I did not worry as I would receive my pension.

It was only after my 60th birthday and no pension arrived that my husband and I started to ask questions, such as do you have to apply for a pension or is it automatic. This may sound strange as we did not live in another country or on another planet but I was not informed.
I knew that ignorance is no defence and it meant that I had no income and had to rely total on my husband's pension for another 5 years, even though I had worked 30 years for my pension. To add insult to injury it is the old basic pension.

Whilst working I checked that my pension was up to date and that I did qualify by working 30 years. I asked the pension office if I could top up, to get the newer pension as I was still working but was told no. At no time did they tell me the pension age had changed.

In real terms this meant the government stole £30,000 from me and I can not get back . So I may not be at the rally in person but I will be there in spirit. I will not be voting for this lying , cheating corrupt party in a million years.

Glorianny

Even I (and I'm old enough to have got my pension at 60) know that this is not about the raising of the pension age, but about the amount of notice given and the inaccuracies in the notices sent out. Some women received two or three different dates for the age they would qualify for their pension. Mostly the corrections involved it being later, not earlier. It is damn difficult to manage when you expect your pension at one age, only to find you won't get it until 3 years later.

You’re right Glorianny I was given a state pension age, it was after 60 but forget exactly when, and then later I was given a different and later state pension age. I also missed out on the new state pension by three weeks, whilst my dear friend, three months younger than me, is on the new pension. I was contracted out anyway and so didn’t lose as much as some with this anomaly, but still was £10 a week worse off from the beginning and I think it’s more now. This is also a huge inequality, to give one set of pensioners a larger state pension merely by an accident of birth is highly immoral in my opinion.

freya you should be eligible for the new pension, not the old one, as the cut off date was 6th April and your birthday wasn’t until July. My friend, born in June, is on the new, higher amount, and so should you be. You also did not need to wait till you were 65 if you were born in 1953, as I was, you should have received your state pension round about your 63rd birthday. Please look into this, it very much sounds as if you are owed money from the pensions department.

maddyone

Glorianny

Even I (and I'm old enough to have got my pension at 60) know that this is not about the raising of the pension age, but about the amount of notice given and the inaccuracies in the notices sent out. Some women received two or three different dates for the age they would qualify for their pension. Mostly the corrections involved it being later, not earlier. It is damn difficult to manage when you expect your pension at one age, only to find you won't get it until 3 years later.

You’re right Glorianny I was given a state pension age, it was after 60 but forget exactly when, and then later I was given a different and later state pension age. I also missed out on the new state pension by three weeks, whilst my dear friend, three months younger than me, is on the new pension. I was contracted out anyway and so didn’t lose as much as some with this anomaly, but still was £10 a week worse off from the beginning and I think it’s more now. This is also a huge inequality, to give one set of pensioners a larger state pension merely by an accident of birth is highly immoral in my opinion.

But those receiving the new state pension are, on the whole, the ones who have had to work longer and have paid more. What's unfair about that? In any case, people on the old state pension who need a top up can apply for Pension Credit, which most people on the new state pension can't.

There are a handful of anomalies, which should be sorted, but I wish people would get their facts straight.

freyja and maddyone - 1 was born in August 1953 and was put on the new state pension (SP), which I could claim from 6 November 2017 when I was 64.
I had thought that the old SP was more generous but if that's not correct I am pleased.
I bought just one year of missing NI contributions to increase my SP as I was told that under new rules I couldn't buy any more than that. I was also told that I would be worse off doing that unless I lived another 17 years.
I knew from my husband who is older than me that you have to claim the SP, it won't be paid to you automatically. He chose to defer claiming for 5 years because he would get the old SP which is much more generous if you defer claiming it.
Call me a cynic but I think the changes in the age when people could claim SP was more about saving the Government money than equality. DWP has a shocking record of dealing with pension entitlements - look at all the women who received less because they didn't know they had to claim a higher a.ount because of a rule change in 1982. And that was picked up on by an ex-pensions minister as the Government either didn't know or had kept quiet about it.
They make these things so complicated so no wonder many don't understand their entitlements.

I know very little about the old pension as compared to the new, but one inequality is likely to come in when people have an old pension and an occupational one that takes them over the benefits threshold, so compared to someone on old pension alone may be worse off. People on pension credit get all sorts of things free that have to be paid for by those who have bought an occupational pension. That is another anomaly that is difficult to unpick without disadvantaging pensioners who claim benefits, particularly as many on pension credit haven’t paid in at all.

I should have added that my hubby is going also. All men and women welcome. 💐

I hope the rally goes well, CrafterinCumbria. I won’t be at this one, but I’ve travelled down for three WASPI rallies and found there was something very cathartic about a bit of chanting and fist waving. It was heartening to have so many MPs come out and support us, as well as others such as Joan Bakewell and Martin Lewis. Who’s organising this one?

I hope everyone who goes has a good time and that the weather holds. Solidarity, sisters!

I had zero notification and found the information by accident myself

I had zero notification

It's not been well done - but not much is, it seems. And although a rally won't change things it's still important to protest. Showing feelings/opinions is bound to have some effect on those in power who want to stay there

Yes I was told about the rise but only after it was to late to make up my contributions so consiqentley I dont get a full pension but originally after i had a pension review i was told I would be ok then just a few years later the age changed not once but three times just didnt stand a chance to make it up

Calendargirl

^I think we need to remember women weren’t even allowed to open their own bank accounts until 1975^

Well, I opened one when I started work, back in 1969. A proper current account.

Had a Trustee Savings deposit account in my own name before then.

That's right, Calendargirl, of course we did.
There were thousands of women who weren't married - of course they had bank accounts.

I had had a Post Office account since I was a child in my own name (not a current account) then opened a current account in about 1963.

So as a Waspie I was in favour of raising the age, though not in one huge leap and I actually don’t think we were given adequate notice. Yes, on the whole statistically men do have a slightly lower life expectancy, however many of us born in the fifties raised our families as well as worked and though men did help more and tried to be “modern” most women actually still did far more in the home as well as organising the children, I worked full time throughout four children (part of this as a single Mum) and then prior to retirement also cared for my Mum for 7 years til she passed away last year when I was able to take “early retirement” at 64. I say good luck to rallying, as for disruption, we’ll I’m sure men were highly disrupted by our suffragettes and had they given up we’d not have the freedoms to vote etc that we all now enjoy. 😊 Have a lovely weekend one and all

Doodledog

I hope everyone who goes has a good time and that the weather holds. Solidarity, sisters!

With you 100% Doodledog !!

I asked for a Pension forecast aged 58. Informed I wouldn't get a pension until I was 62. So dealt with it. Why so many didn't know this?

Do you think that nobody knows things you don’t know, 2mason16? I’d be surprised if that’s any more the case than everyone knowing everything you do know. We all know different things, and yes - sometimes the things we have learned seem obvious, but the reason quizzes are popular is that what is obvious to one person has passed others by.

2mason16

I asked for a Pension forecast aged 58. Informed I wouldn't get a pension until I was 62. So dealt with it. Why so many didn't know this?

Asking for a pension forecast is very sensible - however if you were missing contributions and didn’t have a good income you might not have had time to top up your contributions furthermore those of us that had paid enough by 60 but had to carry on working had to continue to pay NI contributions as well as missing out on our pensions - if you add that into equation some of us have missed out on several thousand pounds

Rosamund1954

Yes I was told about the rise but only after it was to late to make up my contributions so consiqentley I dont get a full pension but originally after i had a pension review i was told I would be ok then just a few years later the age changed not once but three times just didnt stand a chance to make it up

Quite! In 72 when started work I also had tsb account and my dad held my bankbook and gave me 'spends' every Friday night to go dancing!! I saved regularly so when I got married in 76 I had equivalent of deposit on our flat! Young's wouldn't tolerate this now but who's daft here?!

I just don’t understand this. I’m a Waspi and I knew well in advance that the pension age was being raised. What are these women after? I think it makes them look ridiculous.

I know very little about the old pension as compared to the new, but one inequality is likely to come in when people have an old pension and an occupational one that takes them over the benefits threshold, so compared to someone on old pension alone may be worse off

I know a couple of people in this position and it causes very deep resentment and a feeling of wanting to get back. They were frugil and put money into a modest occupational pension (which is now taxed) and are financially worse off than people who never bothered to save a penny. When I was a young woman and you went into a profession or admin role you were advised to put money into the company pension scheme. So later you got badly ripped off rather than reaping the rewards of being thrifty.

Very wrong, and an incentive to get a cash in hand job/earner to make sure the little extra you earn in your declining years does not all end up in the grubby hands of the tax man.

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Going back to the original point, a rally won't help, and it is actually quite expensive to attend for many people. I can understand the disappointment and even anger that the waspi women feel when their hopes of a state pension at 60 were dashed, but with the overall aging population, I don't see how the country's tax payers can be expected to compensate individuals for loss of an expectation due to a lack of awareness of a change in the law. My millennial children already think it probable the law may change again, and the age limit will be raised to 70 before they will get a state pension, and they they will still be renting
when they retire because they can't afford to buy a house, as their salaries are too low and taxes and house prices too high in comparison.