Corbyn to borrow £58 billion to repay WASPI woman.

I only found out when my now ex left and I had to get pension forecast for the divorce
I couldn't afford regular newspapers and was not allowed a TV, so only saw it if visiting friends or family. If there had been a letter sent out I'd have known about it, and there wasn't a letter. Neither did ex get a letter informing him of the increase in his retirement age, although it was only 1 year for him

Nothing is safe under capitalism!!

My sister lost her company pension, growstuff
The scheme had been plundered, some were compensated but other smaller , associated schemes were not.

Tooyoungtobeagrandma Why have you lost all entitlements from your company pension? Even if you only worked for the company for a short time, you should still receive something. I worked for a particular company for just two years in the late 1970s and receive a small pension from them. They contacted me, presumably via the address held on my Government Gateway account.

However, you need to be aware that your state pension will be reduced for the years you paid into a company pension because you paid reduced NICs when you were paying into a company pension scheme.

For people who haven't yet done so, I would recommend signing up for a Government Gateway account and finding out exactly when you will receive your pension and how much. Some women will have been credited with Home Responsibilities protection, even if they didn't work. You will also have the option of paying back missing years, which is usually worth it, if you expect to live more than a couple of years after retirement. I know they're overstretched at the moment, but contacting the CAB might help. To be honest, the government should set up an accessible pensions helpline because the whole issue is so complicated.

I still think the better solution would be to review working age benefits, particularly for the over 60s (men and women). For all the furore about pensions, I wonder how many people really understand how low working age benefits and how punitive the "conditionality" are. I wish the Labour Party had taken this on, rather than offer an unrealistic sweetener to WASPI women.

Scrapping Universal Credit isn't the answer either. UC has the potential to be a fairer benefit than what it replaced, but the implementation of it has been heartless and unfair. It started off as a reorganisation of unfair systems and became a cost-cutting exercise. Unfortunately, so few people understand it that people are fighting the wrong battles.

“ we bought property years ago”
I could barely afford a food shop!

Good post freya

I was very relived when I finally received my pension at 65, five years after it was due and expected. It is only the basic old pension but it is certainly better then nothing. I know it sounds incredible to say we did have notification about the changes but it is absolutely true and this is what is so disgraceful and what all the fuss is about.

The first time I know that it was not going to happen on my 60 birthday in July 2013, was when it didn't arrive. Never receiving a pension before I didn't know what to do to get it; should I apply or does it arrive automatically into my bank account. As weeks turned into months my older brother told me I was at least entitled to apply for the bus pass because I was 60, I did but was also refused because I had NOT retired. It was then I realised that I was never going to get my pension.

At this stage I thought it was because I hadn't paid enough NI stamps so did not qualify, even though, whilst still working, the Pension department said I had and I did not have to pay anymore, and stop taking the NI contributions from my pay. I still thought that they had made a mistake and I was not entitled. It was not until I phoned the pension office that I was informed that I could not have to my pension until I was 65, because I was born in July 1953, 5 months after the cut off date of April 1953.
I know ignorance on such matters is no defence but please accept that to this day there was no notice, no letters, never was and never has been.

This was a cunning tax brought in by George Osborne during the March 2013 budget alongside the idea that pensioners who have private pensions can take their money out , choose how spend it. What he didn't say was you would be taxed every time you take your money out.

The Tories have always considered us stupid by default because they are more intelligent and therefore our superiors. Their tactics has always been to bombard us with facts and figures that are not true, make sense or not relevant in order to rob us blind. We only realise this when it is too late to do anything about it.
I do not expect to get compensated for this pension mess but I am worried that they are using the same tactics about the NHS and other public services and if we are not careful the rug will be pulled from under our feet and it will be gone.

Newquay I agree with your post. I have paid "full stamp" for 44 years and I have to wait another 5 years to get my pension. My oh was able to pay extra contributions in to his company pension because I've always worked as well as keep the home going and doing the lions share of childcare/rearing. Because of home/family I was unable to continue in the senior role I had and lost any company pension. I face the future as a divorced woman, still working for the next 5 years and I'm knackered. My OH faces being a divorced retired man with huge company pension. Women not only work but take on the mental load of running the home and children which most (not all) men do not so for me Ive had 2 full time jobs for 30 years & really would have loved to have retired at 60.

Do those who think that the State Pension is a 'top-up' think that it is acceptable not to 'top up' the pensions of the women who paid NI for decades in the expectation of that money.

We all have different expenses, different incomes and different attitudes to money. If someone has 'provided for themselves' with an occupational pension, are they not also entitled to the State 'top-up' as promised and paid for?

If someone has not been able to save for retirement for whatever reason, are they not entitled to the State pension as income, as promised and paid for?

It doesn't matter whether the recipient uses it as a 'top-up' or an income. To suggest otherwise is to infantilise women who have made choices based on what they chose to do, could afford to do, what they were expecting and what they paid for.

I wrote to the pensions agency and asked under FOI for a copy of all correspondence sent to me about my state pension. The reply was that they do not have any. Nothing. After over 40 years of paying in, and after both the state pension age and the number of years required to qualify changed twice, they have no record of giving any notification to me.

They fought the Backto60 court case by saying that they did not have an obligation to tell us, not that they told us and we hadn't remembered, or had other things in our pretty little heads. They argued that it was not their responsibility to tell millions of women that their pension arrangements had been changed, and that we had no right to know this in time to make whatever alternative arrangement we could.

It is a disgrace that a government can behave like this and get away with it.

I would encourage everyone affected to join their local WASPI group. I am a member, and asked if there was any evidence to prove the lack of notification, please see a short synopsis below.

As an individual born in 1957 I did not see anything notifying me of a change in my pension age. I didn't see any tv adverts, notices in the press, or receive any formal letters. I was 59 when I found out my pension would be six years later than expected when my husband passed. It is scandalous - and it annoys me it is called 'compensation'. I paid in for 39 years.

"Following a FOI request by WASPI the DWP sent out 500,000 letters to women born in 1953 (2:8 million affected) but non of these letters stated the SPA was rising. We have many examples of these letters.

In 2012 furthers letters were issued by the DWP following the 2011 Act but by their own admission not everyone was either sent or received one.

The Government stated that they advertised in 2011 but a media search conducted by Martin Lewis revealed 3 articles in the Financial Times but non of them actually stated the SPA was rising. There are examples of these adverts in the Parliamentary Library.

Steve Webb who was Pensions Minister at the time has since admitted women were not adequately informed and the DWP failed to formally notify them. The Government also ignored advice from its own commissioned report by Cridland that 10 years notice should be given for every 1 year increase to SPA. SAGA and other pension experts were also ignored at the time.

The Government also failed to conduct an impact assessment prior to any SPA increase.

This is why WASPI are following the Parliamentary Ombudsman complaints procedure. "

I was born in 1956 and never received any notification from anyone that my pensionable age was to rise to 66. What has happened to women born in the 50’s is despicable. Many women have been left without much money due to losing their job, perhaps due to ill health. I think those of you that knew about it or received letters were very fortunate. Unfortunately I don’t consider myself so. It makes me so angry when people, especially women, can’t see the injustices that women have been subjected to over the decades. What is equally despicable is that many women are still being disadvantaged by not being paid the same as a man for doing the same job.

a pension of £8,500 (or so) is not a fortune

Well, it seems a relatively large pension to me, nearly twice my State Pension
But I am on the old, lower tier, rate.

We bought property years ago to provide an income for us.

Of course! Why didn't all those silly WASPi women think of that...?

I am also curious as to why so many say they weren’t aware of the changes to the state pension.

I remember discussing it with my in-laws decades ago, long before I was of pensionable age.

We all agreed that as the state pension is only meant to be a top up then the delay in receiving it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

It’s essential for everyone to make provision for their retirement by a Company pension or some other means.

We bought property years ago to provide an income for us.

Heaven help us though if Labour get in. All our efforts to look after ourselves will be for nothing.

At least the women complaining about having to wait a few years to get their pensions will get them eventually, but because we decided to move to Australia to be with our children and grandkids when we retired, our pensions have been frozen for the last 13 years! I dread to think how much we have been cheated out of, and no, before anybody jumps in with you knew that would happen, we were not informed that this would happen. We have paid NI all our working lives too. Corbyn has said he will end the frozen pension fiasco but I won’t hold my breath, they promise you anything just to get elected, and then come the excuses.

State pension is a ponzi scheme, or pyramid. There’s no actual money there, they loan it out, borrow and hopefully repay when someone else pays in.
Yes, we know. That has been said several times on this thread, in case anyone wasn't aware of it in the first place.

That doesn't make it right, though, to take money from people compulsorily, on the understanding that whilst they paid the pensions of those before them, the next generation would pay theirs, and then pull the rug from under them with not enough time to make up the difference financially.

A pension of £8500 (or so) is not a fortune, but for the majority of women, finding six times that (about £51000) out of their post tax salary in a few years is pie in the sky.

Of course, if Corbyn doesn’t get in, ( a likely scenario) then all this discussion is for nothing.
If he did manage it, I really don’t believe that WASPI women would get much at all from them, it’s just yet another election promise, wildly given with no costings and probably just as wildly rejected by next year.

@Nitpick48

I've Private Messaged you. Look in your Inbox

Quizqueen, all women of a certain age were not sent the warning letter.

I am 62 and didn't receive any formal letters, and know that other people didn't receive them either. I never saw any adverts about it on tv, and didn't have time to read the papers as I was working full time with two small children.

I only found out because I was widowed in 2016 at the age of 59 and wrote for a forecast. I am trying to sell my house to reduce my outgoings, and have years of very careful budgeting ahead of me because I wasn't given notice and could not plan for it.

Well said.

It would be nice to get the £20,000, I reckon I'm owed (born Nov 52), but this 'pie in the sky' promise would never make me vote for Labour.

I cannot understand though why some women say they knew nothing about the change in pension age. I received at least 2 formal letters, it was in the newspapers and talked about on the tv as well over a period of several years . I wouldn't have been able to save enough to make up the shortfall but that is a different matter. All women of a certain age would have been sent the warning letter.

Firstly, the state pension like the NHS was introduced so everyone had some money to live on in their old age, no matter what their status or when they are ill. The NHS or pension is not free or a benefit because we all pay NI stamps to help us when needed an emergency.
I must admit I find it unbelievable that Andrew Neil today put me in the same pay category as Teresa May, will we can all dream can't we
Another dream I had was if the shoe was on the other foot and it was the men who had their pension stolen. What would happen then or even more bizarrely if the men's pension went down to 60 to match the women
Now I really am living in fantasy world

Tillybelle Well said. It is hard to believe that people want to vote for more of what people have had to suffer for the past 9 years. I can understand that they obviously haven't suffered it themselves but do they just not see the people on the streets or the division and unhappiness in the country? This is such an opportunity and people and going to throw it away because of cliches and a relentless right wing smear campaign.

It’s how the likes of the Jeffrey Epstein made their fortune exploiting others. And look how that ended up.

State pension is a ponzi scheme, or pyramid. There’s no actual money there, they loan it out, borrow and hopefully repay when someone else pays in.