Back to 60/Waspi Women

The Pensions Act was passed by the Conservative government in 1995.

It was first announced in 1998 by Teflon Tony and was big headline news at the time. I remember my boss coming back into the office at lunchtime with the newspaper. That same boss retired a few months later. She was four years older than me. I was born in 1951 and got my pension at 61yrs and 6 months.

spabbygirl - was it not Gordon Brown who actually introduced this through the back door so to speak and and very discreetly? I maybe wrong.

Agreed Rosebank. Plus the fact that at our age many women and gents are needed as full time or part time carers for elderly parents and relatives which in some cases save the government a hell of a lot of money which they would have to pay for if relatives were put into care homes.

Absolutely Rosebank very well expressed. Thank you.
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Rosebank16 [LIKE]

I am one of the ladies affected & let me be absolutely clear, it's not just money we have been robbed of, it's TIME, after a lifetime of working to raise families in the years when, if becoming pregnant, God forbid if you weren't married (1970s)you left work to bring your children up. If you are working in your 50s you can cope, if you're in your 60s it's a different ball game. Most of us took on menial work to help the family finances, we're tired & want to spend our later years enjoying the families we created. For the first time in my life I am reliant on my husband for money & that is soul destroying! The way this was implicated was, imo, cowardly & bullish, thank God for Michael Mansfield QC & Back to 60. Technology has come a long way since 1994/5, that has been our saviour! Unless it affects you, you cannot begin to appreciate the impact on our lives. Our contribution money was stolen pure & simple, Westminster greed knows no bounds nor do they care!!

The French currently retire at 60 and are now complaining that it possibly will be raised to 64!!! 67 years old in UK. How can this be right when we are still in the EU???

Sorry to derail, but this makes me very cross.

It's because, Twig14, the EU, contrary to what people would have you believe, do not rule every part of our lives and have nothing whatsoever to do with pensions or pensionable age in the Member states.

I have every sympathy with all you WASPI ladies and very much hope that the judicial review goes your way. You've been very badly treated...

I am 62 and have worked since I was 15, always working towards a retirement age of 60. I had no warning about the change in pension age and will not receive SP now until 66, I figured I have lost out on about £44,000 worth of pension!

As one of the 50s women who had to work past 60 I do agree that most of our generation did not have the chance to get a decent occupational pension due to lack of equal pay and job opportunities and staying at home with small children.
However, I really don't think that any Government is going to repay us, it would simply cost too much.

I was born December 1954, started work at 15 according to GOV.UK I get my state pension in December at the age of 66.
I've never been informed of this. I shall get a free bus pass then if it hasn't been phased out, knowing my luck it will be. I will have just missed out on the heating allowance and won't get it until I'm a month short of 67.

Thanks for that Stella14, I wondered when we'd hear the result. I also think it might change if we get a change in gov't, Labour would not see us cheated, I'm fed up of paying taxes simply to give rich sods a bigger tax cut. I would never vote Tory ever, ever. Not that I did in the first place.

teacheranne the age was initially raised to 63 ,maybe thats what you knew in 2000,it was only rasied to 65 much later and 66quite recently.I had no notification at all from DWP about ANY of the rises ,in fact I had a letter from them when I was 58 saying my pension would be payab,e at 60 and giving the amount .It was only through social media that I discovered that wasn't the case .Maybe its MY fault I didn't go looking before then but I genuinely had no idea of teh changes.In my forties I had elderly ,ill.parents ,a young child and a teenager at home a large home that I run as OH worked 70+ hours a week and a business that I've been running since 1976 .I can forgive myself for not knowing ,I do get irritated by posts like yours that imply I'm stupid because others DID know !! There are many thousands ..tens of thousands just like me who were hit with the changes late in the day .It is grossly unfair .

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Women Against State Pension Inequality (imposed on women born in the fifties)

Thank you Nico97 for bringing this up because a lot of us on Gransnet are in this age group and are WASPI, Back to 60 or We Paid in You Pay Out.
The whole equalisation of the State Pension Age has been done in a most unfair way and many women are in very dire circumstances (especially ones without a partners support). I know some that have at times had to choose between eating or heating their home. Also one who struggled to get her cat treatment because she could not afford the vets bill.
Many women were made redundant or gave up their jobs to look after an elderly relative only to find themselves in their 60s having to go on Job Seekers allowance having to go out and seek work. Guy Opperman (DWP) even told us to go and get an apprenticeship in our 60s!!
I was born 1956 started work at age 15 and I still work full time at 63 and in pain daily with my joints.
It is shocking how we have been treated and I am praying that something will happen with the Judicial Review.

I feel so sorry for the WASPI women. It is very unfair.

Snap essjay, I was also born in 1956. However, I think I was better informed than you when I divorced in 2000, I knew then that I would not get my pension when I expected, I'm not sure but I think it was age 65 then but changed later to 66. I was able to use that knowledge to get a lump sum payment from my ex husbands pension fund to cover the 8 years I did not work due to child care. That pension sharing law was introduced in 2004 ( I think) so we delayed the final financial settlement until then.

So, although I have to wait and I'll get a reduced amount due to paying less NI contributions as I was a teacher, I was able to retire at 60 and live on two occupational pensions and my investments from my private, divorce related pension. I was so lucky to have a good friend who was a solicitor who gave me such good advice back in 2000.

My current financial adviser told me to "forget" about my state pension for the time being, don't depend on the future payments and view it as a little extra when the time comes! Gosh, that makes me sound so complacent, I'm not honestly, just appreciative of the fact that I am stubborn, canny and determined so fought hard and also worked hard in well paid jobs for many years. I do however know how difficult these pension changes are for women who have not got decent occupational pensions ( thank goodness my father told me not to pay reduced married Womens contributions!) and I hope some retribution will be made for them.

I know it was loftily claimed by some Junior Minister twonk, back in 2013, that "there was an article about the pension changes in the FT in 1995."

Well, b*gger me! That must have been the very week I forgot to get the Financial Times.......so the ignorance about the DWP's conjuring trick with the State Pension is all my responsibility, eh?

In my ignorance I confess to not knowing what WASPI is?

Just a word to the wise,if any one decided to carry on working after they have started to recieve their pension make sure your employer does not take any more National Insurance from your salary,I had to fight for 6mths to get these payments refunded after I was told from HMRC that these payments stopped as soon as you started to get your pension and still worked.

The French currently retire at 60 and are now complaining that it possibly will be raised to 64!!! 67 years old in UK. How can this be right when we are still in the EU???

i was born in 1956 and will have to wait to retire until 2022 when i am 66. mine changed from 65 to 66 within months and i never received any notification whatsoever. when i divorced in 1997 and sent for my pension date it was down as 2016, no mention that it would be changing in years to come

Well said DotMH1901 - women have been discriminated against all our lives in work and so have rarely been able to build up anything like the same private and work pensions the men have. Between that and for some, the long term health effects of giving birth plus the fact that it's almost always the woman who is left literally holding the baby if a man decides to up and leave, it's no wonder we are campaigning for at least decent notice of these changes and compensation for the money we have lost.
I thought I was all in favour of equalising state pension ages but the more I've read and considered the issues I'm inclined to think the ages should be equalised when women have equal opportunity to build up a work and / or private pension alongside the state safety net.

Thanks Maggie, of course