WASPIs' Ten Thousand payment

From the FT February 12 2024

An MP has put forward a bill calling for a compensation scheme forwomen born in the 1950s affected by the rise in state pension age.

MP Alan Brown has called on the government to give compensation payouts of £10,000 or more to women affected by theWomen Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) state pension age issue.

Speaking in the Commons as part of a 10-minute motion,Brown said: “Like so many injustices created by Westminster, the lack of resolution for the 3.8mn women is a disgrace.

“These women were given the bombshell that their state pension age was going to increase from 60 to 66 just as they were about to retire and it was too late to do any proper financial planning.”

Brown said with regards to compensation, a minimum Level 5 banding of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman remedy scales should be applied but that a Level 6 band with payouts of £10,000 or more would be “most appropriate”.

Brown added: “For nine years this matter has been debated hearing harrowing stories with many MPs across the chamber pledging they would do all they could to help these women but the government has ignored the plight of these women.

The draft legislation has been listed for a second reading on April 19 2024.

www.alanbrownmp.scot/updates/2024/2/13/press-release-waspi-10-minute-rule-bill-1

TinSoldier thank you for the above !

I won’t be holding my breath. The government (thanks Nick Clegg, not just the students you shafted) swindled me out of £40k by making me wait till I was 66y+ before handing me a state pension.

Yes, you upgraded my monthly amount ‘to compensate’ but it will take me till I’m 85y if I live that long, to claw that huge amount back.

It stung.

By the law of averages the government will be quids in.

This!

Sorry, you have to click on the image to see the figures.

Well Marydoll thanks for that.
It reinforces what I just said.
The mendacious Cleggie knew it would raise a lot of money.

We won’t see any of it - of that I’m certain.

Why blame Clegg? He was part of a coalition administration. I knew about the change to my retirement age, like most of my friends, I had several letters from DWP, and saw reports in the press and on TV. I too "lost" £40k+. Should I just pretend that I didn't know and claim the £10k?

HousePlantQueen

Why blame Clegg? He was part of a coalition administration. I knew about the change to my retirement age, like most of my friends, I had several letters from DWP, and saw reports in the press and on TV. I too "lost" £40k+. Should I just pretend that I didn't know and claim the £10k?

I only knew, because I read it in the press and it was discussed in our staffroom, all my friends, a year older than me received it at sixty, I just missed it. ☹.
No letters received here.

The Ombudsman has stated that any recommendations in his report will apply across the board, not just to women who have lodged a complaint.

Urmstongran

I won’t be holding my breath. The government (thanks Nick Clegg, not just the students you shafted) swindled me out of £40k by making me wait till I was 66y+ before handing me a state pension.

Yes, you upgraded my monthly amount ‘to compensate’ but it will take me till I’m 85y if I live that long, to claw that huge amount back.

It stung.

By the law of averages the government will be quids in.

Nick Clegg didn't make you wait six years. The increase to 65 for women was announced in the 1990s. Clegg didn't even become an MP until 2005.

Urmstongran

Well Marydoll thanks for that.
It reinforces what I just said.
The mendacious Cleggie knew it would raise a lot of money.

We won’t see any of it - of that I’m certain.

Blame the Conservative governments of the 1990s.

it may have been announced in the 1990s, but was it stated then, definitely, to whom it would apply ?
i remember reading of a proposal to raise the women's retirement age by stages, so that those born up to 1960 would retire at age 60, born 1961 to retire at age 61, and so on, until 1965 or 66 was reached.
this would have been fairer, giving more to older women, more chance to adapt, and easily understood.
i had foolishly assumed when they spoke of changes, that it would be along those lines.
i cert never had any official notification, nothing from DWP.

It was the Pensions Act of 1995 introduced by the Conservatives. Peter Lilley was Secretary of State for Social Security under John Major's Premiership.

Then the Pensions Act 2011 accelerated the timetable for equalising State Pension age at 65, so that it was completed in November 2018, and brought forward the increase in State Pension age to 66 to between 2018 and 2020.

I was born in 1955, and it was with that Act that my SPA went up from 64 years, 10 months to 66.

So that was Iain Duncan Smith under the Coalition.

No letters here ,I'm not stupid if I'd had letters they would be in the file.I have other documents going back decades but nothing from DWP

How women could have been unaware is beyond me.

paddyann54

No letters here ,I'm not stupid if I'd had letters they would be in the file.I have other documents going back decades but nothing from DWP

I am not stupid either. Is it a coincidence we both live in the West of Scotland, paddyann?
I too am a keeper of letters. I still have hospital letters from 1977, from when I first became ill.
I really must destroy them. 🤔

Urmstongran

I won’t be holding my breath. The government (thanks Nick Clegg, not just the students you shafted) swindled me out of £40k by making me wait till I was 66y+ before handing me a state pension.

Yes, you upgraded my monthly amount ‘to compensate’ but it will take me till I’m 85y if I live that long, to claw that huge amount back.

It stung.

By the law of averages the government will be quids in.

I'm not sure what the exact amoubt is that women have missed out on by having to wait longer for their pensions.

However, the new State Pension starts at £50 per week higher for far fewer years of NI contributions than the old State Pension, for which men had to wait until the age of 65 anyway. That was an anomaly which needed correction.

Percentage increases year on year in State Pensions will mean that the gap between the old State Pension and new State Pension will widen even further over years.

I can believe you never received letters.

It's a struggle to find out exactly what your pension entitlement was, with rule changes, contracted in/out, graduated pension, pre 97, post 97 etc etc.
Add some on, take most of it off again, add a bit for graduated pension,
And the grand total is - less than you thought it should be!

I’ve said before on threads about WASPI women, that I received a letter which told me I would receive my state pension at 61 instead of 60. I did not receive any further letters but when checking online what my pension would be, I discovered that I wouldn’t receive my state pension until I was 63. I don’t know how much pension I lost in those three years, but whatever it was, I lost it! And I missed out on receiving the new state pension by exactly three weeks. If I had been born in early April (after April 6th) instead of near the end of March, I would be receiving more money via the new state pension, but I’m not!

Yes, it's the women who are in that gap who I feel most sorry for.

I didn’t receive any letters. No hope of receiving the money they owe me. Did the full 38 years.

welbeck

it may have been announced in the 1990s, but was it stated then, definitely, to whom it would apply ?
i remember reading of a proposal to raise the women's retirement age by stages, so that those born up to 1960 would retire at age 60, born 1961 to retire at age 61, and so on, until 1965 or 66 was reached.
this would have been fairer, giving more to older women, more chance to adapt, and easily understood.
i had foolishly assumed when they spoke of changes, that it would be along those lines.
i cert never had any official notification, nothing from DWP.

Yes, I remember looking at the dates when it would apply and to whom and cursing because my date of birth meant that I would be affected - just!

It was never as you described welbeck.