WASPIs' Ten Thousand payment

I’m also a keeper of letters, including the one dated June 2016 saying my SPA would be in September 2017 at the age of 60.
No other letters, didn’t read it in the paper (and I read the full grauniad every day, often the i or independent as well plus the TES weekly and have for most of my adult life) so stupidly believed the letter.
41 years contributions but because I was contracted out I still needed to pay full years from aged 60 to 66 to get the full new state pension. Wasn’t told that either, until it was too late.

I think the quick answer is that by the magical formula they came up with, we should have been told 28 months sooner to be fair and compensation if any will be on a compensation scale based on our ages varying from 12000 downwards. If it goes through at all.

The ombudsman found last year that there was definitely a problem with the government not informing all women that would be affected by the change in SPA. It was in their report. Unfortunately that finding was not reflected in the second part of the report, which considers whether the lack of information caused harm and requires compensation. This part of the report was legally challenged and found to be flawed. The ombudsman was required to rewrite the affected parts and recommend the degree of compensation . We won’t know what that rewrite will contain until it’s published. It is overdue.
This is the WASPI official website www.waspi.co.uk/

Paddyann54 mr brother I didn’t have anything , life was also very busy thr. So at first I didn’t hear it on the news , it was a shock to me , whst gets me is that people who don’t take their pension at pension age get 8% interest when they do claim , I have lost 5 years of my pension which I paid for

I lost £15,000 by having to wait for my pension

I think the pension service is still
In a mess I contacted them 2 years ago and asked them to check my payments were correct , to date I have heard nothing

It's beyond me, too.

I received a letter telling me I couldn’t retire at 60 just 8 months before I turned 60. I could no longer claim state pension until I was 66! I lost thousands and consequently there wasn’t the time to get myself a decent private pension at that stage. We were robbed.

Bluedaisy yes you were robbed..I would investigate why you weren't getting your pension then at 63

I heard about the change in pension age via the TV news after announcement in the budget of that year. I had no letter so assumed that it did not apply to me. Stupid I maybe but the fact is I only realised that I was not getting my pension in the July of my 60th birthday when it didn't happen, born July 1953.

It was my husband, born in 1950, who explained to me what had happened, that the government stole £30,000 of my pension, that I had worked 40 years for. I must work until I was at least 63 so advised me not to give up the day job. Too late I was pensioned off by my company because I was 60,

So those of you who 'can't believe' or 'we must be stupid' because we didn't know' is insulting so think again. Given that this government has lied and cheated it's way through 13 years of being in power their creditability is zero. I can't believe you think they are honest and trustworthy.
I actually think it is insulting to accuse us; ignorant maybe, trusting yes but ask your selves, why would we lie about this, what do we have too gain. We were the ones who lost our income, without notice or means of getting alternative employment because of our age. It was us who had to rely on husband's pensions or friends and family for financial support until we actually received our pension.
The government ignored our plight like all the others groups wronged for the sake of the millions they pocketed. The same question is asked every time a scandal raises it head, 'Where is that money.? certainly not into the public purse.

These scandals are mounting, this government is only interested in monetary gain at the expense of the people.

Pigs are flying high over this country, we won't see a penny , we join the long list of injustices dished out by the Tory party and will be at the bottom of the queue

I don’t remember where I got this information, whether it was a newspaper or a letter but if I knew it then surely others did ?

Surely, others did not. Please read the Ombudsman report of his long investigation.

The DWP knew by 2004 that its publicity campaign was only reaching a small percentage of its target audience but did not change its approach.

DWP has admitted that its IT systems at the time were new and that records were incomplete.

DWP has admitted that it had no plans to tell some of the women affected by the changes.

DWP has admitted that it has no record of which women it wrote to and which women it did not wrote to.

The Ombudsman has ruled that the DWP is guilty of maladministration.

This is a personal anecdote but points to DWP records being incomplete at that time.

My husband died in 2007. I made a claim for widow’s bereavement allowance which is based on the NIC of the deceased.

My DH had worked 40 uninterrupted years paying Class 1 NIC with two large and well-known employers. DWP could not find his NIC records, not under his name, not under his NINO. As far as they were concerned, he had not existed. They argued this for a whole year despite me sending copies of his P60s. It was very distressing.

Eventually, I asked my MP to intervene and the money was paid. BUT, despite repeated requests, DWP would never explain what had happened.

Now, I realise that this was happening at the same time that DWP has now admitted that its IT systems were new and incomplete. If DH’s records were missing, what’s to say mine were not missing too at that time?

I have never received any personal communication about the change in state pension age.

When I finally came to claim my state pension, four months before my birthday, as we are invited to do, I had to wait another six months after my birthday to received my pension.

DWP claimed it could not find my records or my husband's records. (I am entitled to 50% of the Additional State Pension he paid for and would have received had he lived.)

I have a Gateway account. My NIC record is there so why could DWP not find my records? Do they have several IT systems that don't join up?

Returning to the Ombudsman’s report, you get an idea of what the publicity consisted of. There were two media campaigns. One featured a Monopoly board that didn’t even mention the change of pension age for women. The other was called Working Dogs. Dog is a pejorative term that some men use of women so to use that for a campaign to tell hard-working women that they are going to have to work another six years makes me very angry. Maybe some agency yuppie thought it was witty. Working like a dog. I wasn’t aware of either campaign at the time.

These may or may not have appeared on the sides of buses. But in all honesty, if a bus has passed you today, did you notice what was was on the side?

The rest of the publicity broadly comprised leaflets placed in Job Centres, Benefits Offices, Citizens Advice Bureaux and Post Offices. If you are at work all day, what reasons would you have to go to those places? Even if you have to go to the Post Office occasionally at weekends do you casually browse the leaflets? The ones in my small village post office are hidden behind a carousel of greetings cards.

Some leaflets may have appeared in some workplaces. Not in mine.

There is evidence in the report that the DWP thought it was all a bit too costly to have to tell women individually but it was not adverse to continuing to spend millions on a campaign it knew was not reaching its target audience. It's beyond irresponsible.

It should never have been a case of having to catch a TV advert or see something on the side of a bus. The DWP should have written to every women affected and it didn’t.

Blue Daisy. From all that I can glean from the Ombudsman’s report, some women, if told at all, would only have been told when they were already 58 or 59 that they had to work until they were 66.

Well Starmer according to some is a dead cert for PM after the next election will he seeing as to some he is the new messiah compensate us Waspi"s? I won't hold my breath. I never received a letter although I did know I would have to wait a couple of years for my pension but that is not the point whether we knew or not imagine the outcry if the MPs or the Lords were having to wait longer for their gold plated pensions, we were swindled and lied to, for years I thought I was getting my pension at 60 and it wasn't a benefit (not originally) it was something I worked for and paid my dues for.

Waspi is only for people born after 6th April 1950 and before 5th April 1960.
Hard luck me I was born at 12.10am on the 6th April 1960.
Does this mean because I'm 10 minutes past the deadline I must have read the full information about pensions.
I do hope the ones who this affected including my sister (2 years older)
are compensated.

I never received any letter or any info I am a 1955.

I was definitely NOT informed. Found out age 58. I dont disagree with the changes but wish i had known. Due to receive pension this October. Had to stop self employed wotk in childcare 3 weeks ago, Despite 45 years of National Insurance contributions I am not entitled to ANY sick pay as i did not earn enough in the last 2 years. How are we supposed to know when things change if we are not informed? How am I not entitled to a single penny now re sick with 45 yeats payments. Cant get UC as husband working. This country no longer looks after those who having paying into it!!

I was born in 1950. I had to wait a year as I remember before I could get my state pension. No letters received here! I found out on the news and in newspapers that I couldn’t retire!

I too received notification that my pension age had been increased. At the time it was to 64.5. I was never formally told it had increased further, though I knew about it from following the news and budgets. In the end myretirement age was less than a month shy of my 66th birthday and as that fell during the pandemic I chose to delay it slightly in order to return to my job in education after 'working' from home! I went back for half a term in order to have a proper send off from the colleagues I'd worked with for almost seven years. The fact that I knew what was happenig shouldn't mean I get no compensation if something is agreed. That would mean punishing people for staying informed! As the changes were on a sliding scale, the compensation should be too. I do feel sorry for those whose plans were wrecked, but find it astonishing that they did not know at all!

Bea65 & Urmstongran,

I think you may of forgotten about women's retirement age rising from 60 -63 ?
It seems to be somewhat dumbed down as far as I can see, with school friends arriving at age 63 after April 1st 2016 receiving the higher amount you spoke about Urmstongran . For myself I was one of the last B

Boomers to receive the 'old pension rate ' paid to me having reached the age of 63 just a few short weeks before April 1st , how is this fair ?
How is that fair in any way ,shape or from ? Having lost out on three years of state pension and being paid the lesser amount . I feel it is grossly unfair .
WASPI Woman
nb my keyboard has no hashtag 😀

Quite agree with you I never received a letter had to retire with ill health at 58 thought oh well iwill get my pension in two years oh no had to wait until 66 and four months to receive what I had paid for the GOVERMENT stole our pension money they had no right to touch our pension money if this had happened to men they never would of got away with it!!!!!

hollie57 exactly Men would not have put up with this… inequality reigns still!

NanaTuesday You are overlooking the fact that the old basic pension is much more generous to married women when their husband dies.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-11973997/Will-inherit-state-pension-husband-wife.html

If you reached state pension age before 6 April 2016, far more generous rules were in place for inheriting payments than for people retiring now.

What you get depends on how much of a National Insurance record your spouse built up.

Basic state pension: As long as you have not maxed out your own state pension entitlement already, and your spouse built up enough National Insurance in their own right - in other words, they weren't paying the reduced married women's stamp - you would get an increase, or even the full basic £156.20 a week.

Additional state pension: You inherit 50-100 per cent of this amount depending on your late spouse's date of birth.

Under the new rules your state pension is meant to be based on your own NI record, not that of your spouse.

What you might inherit from them, if anything, is therefore far more limited if you reached or are still due to reach state pension age after April 2016.

This is especially the case if you both come under the post-2016 rules.

If the spouse who dies qualified for a full new state pension, currently worth £203.85 a week, or less than this a surviving spouse will not inherit anything.

However, if the late spouse got more than this due to additional state pension built up in the past, the excess is regarded as a 'protected payment' and the spouse outliving them gets half of it.

Of course, this may not apply to you if you have maxed your own state pension but the old system looks after many women who will not have done.

Your slightly younger colleages who have not maxed their entitlement to new state pension will not get this. Furthermore, they needed 35 years of NIC to get full pension whereas you only needed 30 years - see my earlier post 00:44 today.

Indeed MaryDoll. My sister was one of those WASPIs that died before State Pension Age because it was raised to 66.

Regardless of whether 50s born women (of which I am one) knew about the changes from TV adverts, magazines etc, or not, is really a moot point and tantamount to victim blaming. The ombudsman has found the DWP guilty of maladministration - fact! Therefore this maladministration should be compensated for - fact! There is a process which should be adhered to. Like others have said, I’m not holding my breath but, the fact remains, an injustice has occurred and blaming women for ‘not knowing’ about the changes at the time, I find, offensive.

I am one of those born in March 1953, so just missing out on the new pension. My husband has recently died and I have inherited a bit of extra pension from him, but even with that, my total pension is still a fair bit below the new pension rate.

Whether women were "unaware" or not, it is still unfair. When I contracted to pay into my pension when I started work, it was on the understanding that I would retire aged 60. Moving the goalposts is a breach of contract.
Insurers have tables which assess how long people are likely to live. The government should have started amending pensions in a more timely manner, and in smaller stages, not just a 5 year one off leap! Friends whose birthdays were just a few days away from mine got their pensions at 60. I had to wait a further 5 years - unfair!