Waspi women

I am not convinced about LP stance on it being a burning injustice to us WASPIs. Why now and not 2010 or in the recent Parliament. The WASPI campaign has brought it very much to the fore but the inequality lies deep in the past, a legacy from 60s 70s and into the 80s with Goverment of both colours. I knew from 1995 that I would have to work to 65, and was fortunate in the early 2002 to move my career to a place where I would get a good occupational pension. 2010 just moved the goalposts to 66. I appreciate that I am fortunate where others aren't and hope that if compensation is due then it is focussed on those with most need. The cynical part of me thinks "Oh look there is a demographic we can tempt to vote for us" The money has to come from somewhere and it will come out our pockets one way or another through higher prices, taxes, or inflation.

I did get my pension at 60 and even though the changes didn’t affect me I knew they were coming. Therefore I can’t understand those who say they knew nothing about the changes.

Having said that I do think there were too many hiccups and jumps as the age kept being moved. Those daft enough not to check could easily have been caught up.

However, there is a case to be made that this could and should have been rolled out more efficiently and with greater communication. Yet when a party acknowledges this and says they will do something to compensate what happens? They get kicked in the teeth by those they want to help.

So no sympathy.

What makes that all the more surprising is that your state pension doesn't even arrive automatically on the day you're eligible for it. You have to claim it...

Why did you think you were going to get your pension when you were 60? I assume you realised when money didn't magically arrive in your bank account on your sixtieth birthday. It's never been difficult to read the press, follow budget changes, contact the Department for Work and Pensions or (in recent years) to type "Check your state pension age" into Google and be directed to the Department of Work and Pensions. I really don't understand how women can have gone over 20 years and have been unaware of something which is so important to them. If people don't know of issues which affect them personally, I wonder how many other changes to the law have just gone over their head. I hope you're all telling your children and grandchildren to check now and do what they can to make provision.

gtowstuff I was born nov 1953 and got my pension 19 days before 65th birthday. Never received any communication.

It may surprise you to know this, lemon, but you don't actually represent the majority views of all women.. let alone the whole country.

Yeah yeah! The whole country minus the ones who understand economics. Unfortunately, that leaves quite a few blinkered ones.

The real problem is working age benefits. Women over 60 are now of working age and discovering that if they can't work that the support available is pathetic. Both men and women over 60 are being treated considerably worse with Universal Credit than they would have been with the old system.

In the long term, the poverty some women experience as pensioners is caused years before, when they suffered discrimination in the workplace and career breaks etc. That's why I support childcare initiatives. I also think that younger women are more aware of the need to be responsible for their own future.

..... but it hasn’t worked with the women has it?
What it has done, is to see a woman on QT ask Johnson about it, not be happy with the reply, and said let’s announce a £58b
Compensation package right now to maximise votes! Haha that’ll be one in the eye for Boris.
You know this, I know this, the whole country knows this.

It's not actually in the manifesto is it?

What's this, Oops?

P75

Under the Tories, 400,000 pensioners have been pushed into poverty and a generation of women born in the 1950s have had their pension age changed without fair notification.

This betrayal left millions of women with no time to make alternative plans– with sometimes devastating personal consequences.

Labour recognises this injustice, and will work with these women to design a system of recompense for the losses and insecurity they have suffered.

Ha! Ha! Yes that’s absolutely correct MaizieD it was thr Tories ???

I think there should be some sort of test, like the Citizenship Test before people are given voting rights. Universal franchise for the few not the many!

So Waspis vote for Boris then and stop whinging. It’s your call.

Unfortunately I remember the 70's with power strikes at 4pm, going home from school in the dark. No electric to cook dinner etc. This is what they are promising, all rumours to get your vote

Just seen this! What on earth are you on about, *Jani318? Who is promising power cuts?

(It was a tory government, BTW)

As a waspi woman I welcome the news to an extent but feel it raises to many questions.
By the way they propose to do it little will be gained. Their tax will be higher and any benefits will be reduced. Additionally woman born 1955 onwards won’t be included. They should consider paying a lump sum in the first instance nd go from there.

His "kids" are far too old to qualify for childcare, unless there are even more recent additions to his genetic line than I'm aware of. Based upon passed performances and behaviour that possibility should not be dismissed entirely

Boris is promising nothing he won’t break after the election. 2bn for potholes, 1 bn for childcare- potholes are work twice as much as a child then.

What’s a WASPI?

Wouldn’t surprise me if the goal posts were changed again!

I'd say that you could depend on that with more confidence than in expecting any political party to rectify what has been done to WASPI women ayse.

Wouldn’t surprise me if the goal posts were changed again!

It's not actually in the manifesto is it?

Och this is all pie in the sky. It'll not happen and all us WASPIS will get our pensions eventually as we hit the relevant age. Then it will just be a 'might have been'.

When there is a Labour government trisher...?
When will that be, 2024, 2028?

If I did have a small windfall, I’d like to donate it to a homeless charity, my local hospice, the RNLI and a climate change organisation. Hopefully it would be put to good use.

Hate spell checker - not Tori’s but Conservatives

I’m a WASPI. I remember years ago when we were first told and I checked how long I would have to work. It turned out to be 2.25 years. I was fortunate in that I was born in the early 1950s and tbh I was not unduly concerned. However, I think the goal posts were moved again by the Tories, resulting in many having to wait even longer for their pensions.

I wouldn’t say no to some compensation and I feel that in general we have been shabbily treated. Of course, the pension age could have been rounded down so that men would have been able to retire earlier. I’d lay a bet that most ordinary people will not be able to retire at all, leaving only those who have adequate funds (the wealthy). All those on zero hours contracts, low wages may never be in that position.

As I said to dh earlier this evening, giving compensation would not have any affect on my vote. A far longer roll out would have been more acceptable. IMO it was done to save money and NOT for reasons of equality.

At least Labour seems to have conceded that there is some justification in the very real anger of women in our age group, who have been treated appallingly by Tori’s and New Labour alike.

As always in this society it is those with the least economic clout who pay the penalty for government mismanagement and the ‘take’ society.