WASPI

I too had a letter, I remember it being shown on TV news, and was certainly in the paper. Although the changes were announced about 15 years before implementation, some women did not receive adequate warning, although I cannot see how it was that many that are claiming. How many had a letter and paid no attention to it.

I didn’t get a letter but was aware of the forthcoming changes from the news. But then I always took an interest in politics.

I did get a letter notifying me. All my friends had letters too. It was in the papers and on the news. It was a topic of conversation with friends similar age and also among work colleagues. I do find it hard to believe that anyone didn’t know about the rise in pension age for women. I didn’t like having to wait until 66 to get my pension but I knew about it. Still feel resentful though that David Cameron increased my pension age from 65 to 66 as part of his austerity measures.

I received a letter to tell me the age for people born between 1950 and 1955. I was born in 1953 so it would affect me . It worked out that I was born 3years 1 month and fourteen days after the 5th April 1950 , so this was the amount of time after my 60th birthday that I would have to wait for my pension.
I had got used to that idea when I received a second letter to tell me that that calculation had changed and I would now have to work about another 4 months , making me 63 and a half when I finally reached pension age .
I , like you, couldn’t be the only woman that got these letters .

I didn't get a letter 🙁

Nope no letter

I can’t remember if I did or didn’t to be honest but I certainly knew about it because it was all over the news and in the papers.
I was born in ‘58 so had to wait an extra 6 years so definitely not happy about it but I can understand why it had to happen .
But what I can’t understand though is wether you got a letter or not what actual difference would it have made to most women,
How would you have been more prepared - would you have looked for a better job? Paid more into your own private pension?

I didn't get a letter

I got a letter around my 60th birthday letting me know that I would not get my pension at 60.I do remember when it was first announced in the news years before, when I was in my early 40s.
What I did not get was a letter when my pension date was approaching asking me to apply for my pension, which I thought they usually did.

I didn't get a letter but I knew from the news and a Union rep told us when i started working for the NHS.

I didn't get a letter. I knew from the news on tv that changes were being considered, but it wasn't until I started working in a job with lots of other women that I discovered the changes had actually been implemented.

I couldn’t remember if I’d got a letter or not, so put in an FOI request (as advised by WASPI). I didn’t get one.

You wouldn't if you were born after May 1955.

The first stage of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s report, published in July 2021, - specifically the section “What did happen” not the section “What should have happened”, clearly states:

114. The proposed schedule for issuing letters included women who turned 60 between April 2010 and May 2015. We have seen no evidence of what – if anything – DWP proposed to do to tell women who turned 60 after May 2015 whose State Pension age had increased to 65 under the Pensions Act 1995.

www.ombudsman.org.uk/publications/womens-state-pension-age-our-findings-department-work-and-pensions-communication/what-did-happen

I fall just outside that cut off.

What I did get, after my husband died in 2007, was a letter from the DWP Pensions Service which tells me that I will receive my State Pension at age 60. It is accompanied by leaflet BB1 imprint 2006 (BB is Bereavement Benefit) which says State Pension age for men is 65 and women 60.

The Pension Service knew my age as what was paid in BB was dependent on the age of the widow(er). Younger than 55 (which I was) the rate was reduced.

This letter and leaflet were sent twelve years after the Pensions Act 1995 and only three years before the first women affected by the changes were due to turn 60 and would see their pension age increase.

In other words, just three years before the changes came into effect, the Pensions Service weren't just not telling some women. Worse than that, it was still sending out personal letters and general leaflets which made no reference to the changes affecting women born after 5 April 1950.

Just a few months later in 2007, a new Pensions Act would increase the SP age to 66.

I did receive a letter in advance, advising that I would not receive my pension until 63. I had also read about the change beforehand in the newspapers.

I cannot recall if I got a letter but it was all over the news....come on! You'd have to be a hermit not too know, was massively talked about. Lot of people with selective amnesia hoping for ££££

Joanofarc99. Do please read the PHSO report before spouting rubbish like this.

You wouldn't if you were born after May 1955.

Graphite thank you for that explanation.
I was born in 1957 and can't remember getting a letter, so that explains why.

I was very aware of the changes as they came in as I had a friend who was older than me, I think born in 1953.
She was very annoyed about it all because she had to wait for her pension, but still got the old rate.
I had to wait longer, but get the new rate.

Graphite...you are rude...but I'll forgive you, probably down to a lack of intelligence which you can't help

I didn’t get a letter.

Not at all ,*joanofarc*.
I don’t know anyone who did get a letter maybe it was a postcode thing .Some of us had very busy lives so of we didn,t watch news or buy newspapers we wouldn,t have known
I, e employed the same accountant since the early1980,s and on questioning him HE wasn,t notified about the change to my pension age either !
I,ve seen these insinuations on here before …I am either stupid nor work shy
I have worked since I was15 never taken maternity leave and always paid my tax and NI….by my accountant to reckoning the Thieves in Downing St owe me inexcess of £52k.
I won’t hold my breathe.,

The proposed change in the retirement age had been mentioned for years before it happened and I have always been astonished that so many women claim to have been unaware.

It was discussed everywhere- on the tv news, in newspapers and talked about generally amongst friends and family.

I didn’t actually get a letter but I most certainly knew it was happening!

Just what letters are people refering to here? I never received a letter when the original legislation was passed by the Conservatives.in

Nor did anybody l know.

I also did not see any TV programs at. Newspaper Adverts at that time about to he change.

Funny when asked about producing these adverts successive Governments could not produced them.

Because Labour sat on it for years and kept it really hushed up. Really tells you everything you need to know about them.

Firstl heard about was through the Coalition Govt who had the decency to write to me and tell me that my retirement age had been increased by 4 years and 9 months.

This was later increased by 15 months to 6 years.. Six years added My birth day was a few months from the end of the tranche of women who were born after April 5 1950 before April 5 1955

Yes at this stage there was lots of publicity as it was now made transparent for everybody

Please refer to the Pension Act of 1995 and previous Pension Acts.

This group were always promised a retirement at 60. Don't think anybody else born on the 1950's was.

First post should say the Conservatives in 1995.

Doodledog

I couldn’t remember if I’d got a letter or not, so put in an FOI request (as advised by WASPI). I didn’t get one.

I did this too, no letter.