WASPI Compensation

Yes, PN I couldn't agree more.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, and this applies to pensions too. The 90% who admit to knowing about forthcoming changes apparently were not sufficiently concerned to enquire about the date. And as they were working for five unexpected years they would have earned more money than they would gain from their monthly pension so I can't see where the poverty claims come from.

I worked until I was sixty-five, which was not easy, but I never considered retiring before that age, although I could have done so. Don't label me with 'I'm all right Jack.'

rafichagran

I did not vote Labour, and I hope they do not get in next time. Politicnerd how do you keep the emotion out of this? People are upset and feel they have been misled. I for one are very angry

"People" are upset because they have mislead themselves into believing that they've paid in so they should get their money back. That it's their money.

That's not how pensions work. When you pay your taxes and your National Insurance you are not contributing to your individual pension pot as you would with a private pension. You are paying for the generations ahead of you, older than you.

That generation, our generation, were significantly less generous to the people whose pensions they were paying because pensions were lower because there was no triple lock and also because people didn't live as long. So the amount of money needed to fund the state pension at that age at that point in time was significantly less money than it is now.

Those of you who are "upset" are asking the today's workers to fund a group of individuals who didn't think to check what the state pension age was going to be for them.

Sorry - meant to paste this into my post above.

www.gov.uk/automatic-pension-credits-for-men

Jackiest

I tend to look at it the other way round. The retirement age was equalised because was against Article 4 of the Social Security Directive which prohibits discrimination on the ground of sex. So for the 20 years until it was equalised the government knew it was acting illegally. So all the men that were illegally forced to work longer than women before they got their pension should sue the government.

They weren't forced to work. Men between the ages of 60 and 65 who did not work, or who did work but earned too little to pay NI, were credited with NI contributions so that their pensions were unaffected.

This was phased out as women's pension age rose.

PoliticsNerd

People are upset because, in the fifteen years notice period the didn't get financial advice to protect themselves. Many people are affected by the changes any government makes. Why didn't this group do something for themselves or are all the people on GN part of the 10% that didn't get a letter, read a newspaper or listen to a news broadcast?

I doubt it, but I also doubt that many people on low wages could invest enough in a 15 year period to retire on for six years, even if they found out the minute the announcement of the first increase happened. Remember that minimum wage didn't come in until 1999, and that many women work part-time.

How much would you need to save to pay the equivalent of six years' pension, when there would be no employer contribution to help? On today's rates that would be around £70k, which is well over the amount of life savings held by the vast majority of people. Finding that sort of money in 15 years would be all but impossible for almost everyone who would need to do it.

Maybe if you have a high final salary occupational pension, a rich husband or partner and/or significant savings and investments it might be easier to write off those who couldn't do it as ignorant or feckless 🤷‍♀️. I can't explain the lack of comprehension of how this has impacted a significant number of women otherwise.

I tend to look at it the other way round. The retirement age was equalised because was against Article 4 of the Social Security Directive which prohibits discrimination on the ground of sex. So for the 20 years until it was equalised the government knew it was acting illegally. So all the men that were illegally forced to work longer than women before they got their pension should sue the government.

People are upset because, in the fifteen years notice period the didn't get financial advice to protect themselves. Many people are affected by the changes any government makes. Why didn't this group do something for themselves or are all the people on GN part of the 10% that didn't get a letter, read a newspaper or listen to a news broadcast?

Aveline

PoliticsNerd they may only have been in government a few months but they've made blunder after blunder. Way to alienate the electorate!

Not necessarily for five years though.

karmalady

Sir Lindsay Hoyle [labour}, £250,000 claimed from taxpayers over 2 years for holidays, best plane seats, best hotels etc. 17 jaunts

Really?
How did he claim for holidays?
Is that acceptable?

Sir Lindsay Hoyle [labour}, £250,000 claimed from taxpayers over 2 years for holidays, best plane seats, best hotels etc. 17 jaunts

rafichagran

I did not vote Labour, and I hope they do not get in next time. Politicnerd how do you keep the emotion out of this? People are upset and feel they have been misled. I for one are very angry

I think you’ve summed it up rafichagran. You’re upset and annoyed, feel you’ve been misled, and you didn’t vote Labour. If you don’t vote Labour next time, they won’t have lost your vote, it’s the people who did but are now disaffected that they need to worry about.

Aveline

PoliticsNerd they may only have been in government a few months but they've made blunder after blunder. Way to alienate the electorate!

The blunders do not seem to inconvenience the LP politicians-
no cut backs on expenses,
they wouldn’t get WFA even if they were old enough so they can’t imagine what it feels like,
they’ll have had plenty of time to plan for their retirement
AND they’ll get the new SP rate.
There are sure to be more freebies on the way all dutifully declared of course.
Unlike me, Starmer didn’t have to pay for his own glasses, even out of his two-fold salary.

Just a small point - this campaign has been going on throughout the last government’s 14 years and they did nothing! Indeed one female MP who was getting too successful with her support of WASPI got enticed away from the campaign to a new more lucrative role. The ombudsman report came out last March and the Tories said they had no intention of paying one penny in compensation! Starter hasn’t handled it well but he did inherit a far bigger financial problem that he expected and there is no available money. Perhaps if Hunt had paid WASPIs rather than giving out an NI reduction bribe, we’d feel a little happier!

am not are.

I did not vote Labour, and I hope they do not get in next time. Politicnerd how do you keep the emotion out of this? People are upset and feel they have been misled. I for one are very angry

PoliticsNerd they may only have been in government a few months but they've made blunder after blunder. Way to alienate the electorate!

Oreo

I really think that the Labour Party will be out when the next GE comes around and I’m fuming about it.
They have their chance and I think they’re blowing it.

So they have been in government for five months and you think you know the result of the next election?

So little fact and so much emotion on these threads.

Well done all the pensioners who have not been affected financially by having to wait another six years for there pensions and can afford to heat there homes. We'll done the virtue signallers who are quick to tell us they are only above the amount of pension credit, but would rather the money went elsewhere.

Angela Rayner did state that the WASPIS or people in that age group should be compensated I saw it on TV myself.
Do I want compensation and the WFA you bet I do and alot of people who I have spoken to agree with me. I am not poor by any means but having worked well over 40 years I wany my life to be comfortable, and to be able to buy food, put on the heating and not be terrified of the cost. We see on the television people who are just above the rate for PC freezing and not watching every penny.

Good post petal53

Apart from the fact that women could retire at 60 and men 65, which was an anomaly which needed correcting, women seem to have drawn the short straw regarding pensions since the state pension was introduced.

If this was a bank or financial institution, then a case for misselling could be brought both for those women who were given no or insufficient notice about the changes to pension age and to those women who were missold the Married Woman's insurance scheme.

When the state pension was introduced the majority of women didn’t work if they were married, and the man was paid a ‘married man’s’ pension, which was more than the single pension. As more women went to work all sorts of anomalies occurred. Some women paid a married woman’s stamp and didn’t get a pension. Others paid the full stamp and received the full pension. Then in order to equalise things, non working/married woman stamp women started to be paid the quota of the pension that was actually what their husbands were paid previously as a married man’s pension. It’s all very complicated, although the new pension has simplified things to some extent.

Personally I think the whole thing has been caused by introducing it all too quickly, and not giving women (some women) enough notice and time to prepare. I also think all women had the right to be properly informed on both times the age ranges are changed. It is simply not good enough to rely on trickle down information and it’s not good enough for women to dismiss other women who weren’t informed properly, and for whatever reason, were not prepared for the new time scale. It’s been a complete mess up, and the ombudsman has basically said this. It doesn’t matter which government said or did what, what matters is that WASPI women should be given the miserable amount that the ombudsman said, and it seems all governments have colluded in not being honest and fair with women, and unwilling to pay out this miserable amount of compensation.

Obviously it rubs salt in the wound when billions are being given away to other countries which can afford a space programme, or to introduce green schemes!

mae it was never a fair system. Men have had to work till 65 while women could retire at 60. Men have just got on with it without too much complaint. It was a system I have never understood as statistics show that women tend to live longer than men.

If men had been faced with the Pension penury inflicted by governments banking on them being benign and resigned to putting up with the mess, then it's a reasonable bet senior ministers would find themselves strung up by a vigilantè mob just like Mussolini.

I really think that the Labour Party will be out when the next GE comes around and I’m fuming about it.
They have their chance and I think they’re blowing it.

Did you vote for the parties that have actually created this huge mess though? why are they also not responsible?

I never expected anything else but am still furious about it. If we didn’t get WFP whatever made anyone think they would pay out millions more! Kier Starmer is a misogynistic liar but I knew that before he was even elected . Never voted Labour in my life and never will.