Pension theft

I feel that this thread is rather one sided so far. I am one of the 54 born women who have been particularly affected with the rise in State Pension Age, with little notice. A combination of good management and good fortunate as meant that I have not suffered as a result unlike many of my peers. I don't think I can explain the case as clearly as the fact sheet in the link but feel, in the interest of fairness, I need to present the other side of the argument.

www.waspi.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/MPs-factsheet-2020.pdf

That's not what the law decided. The "source", Carl Beech (aka "Nick") was jailed for 18 years.

Emelle I've read the other side of the argument many times. As a 1955 born women, I'm one of the first who will have to wait until I'm 66. I'm not going to repeat everything here either, but I feel there are so many flaws in the Waspi arguments.

Emelle You had 25 years notice. Nobody else except you is to blame, if you didn't take any notice of media announcements during the mid 1990s. You're obviously capable of "good management". Taking notice of the budget each year and checking one's pension age should surely be part of good financial management.

Not really a comment on this discussion, which I have found very interesting - just to relay that yesterday I received a letter from DWP advising pension level for coming year with a PS that I would receive an increase of 25p per week on reaching my 80th birthday (which is later this year). Can't wait - big plans.

P.S. I worked full time until I was 76.

growstuff - you clearly haven't even read what my post said. I was in a position to plan for a comfortable retirement and did so. Other women weren't as fortunate - for example those whose divorce settlements were based on them getting their state pension at 60. That suggests that in some cases, 25 years ago, even the members of the legal profession weren't aware of the changes.

I think the government should encourage the younger generation to work instead of going to university to study Mickey Mouse subjects that won't get them employment later on anyway. The longer they stay unemployed the less they seem to want to work. Let the older generation retire at 60. They've done their bit to contribute to the fund. I can't see why this isn't obvious to the government.

ld650. I'm in receipt of the 25p a week extra too. I've been told that it was introduced in 1975 and hasn't been increased 1p since. I happily await someone correcting this if I've been wrongly informed.

Without joining in the debate about whether the changes of the pension were fair or not, I just wanted to point out that many workers ( men and women) will not receive the full amount of the new pension amount. As you can see from my user name, I was a teacher for many years and so was contracted out of paying the full NI contribution which means I will get a much lower pension eventually.

At the time I was not aware of this so did not use the extra amount I had in my salary to save in an additional pension. Luckily though I was aware early on of the proposed pension age changes so did make provision and so am not dependent on the state pension.

maddyone. Please don't be annoyed with yourself. You did the sensible thing and came to your friends here and asked their advice. That's what I would have done too. How else are we to know? I was misled on Twitter recently. The big newspapers publish lies especially before the election. The BBC showed huge bias in its reporting before the election.
We can only ask our friends and hope that among them some people will have access to the facts. You asked. That was sensible. No need to be annoyed with yourself. You have probably cleared up a terrible problem for others who read the Facebook article.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

We have all had a rotten deal. I was born Oct 1954. My pension forecast which I recieved yesterday will be £168, I have nothing else. If I had the lower rate of pension £140, I could claim pension credit which tops it up to 168. On pension credit you also get free boilers, council tax help, dental and optical either free or lower rate. Other people have assured me you can get free lift insulation and lots other things. Can anyone tell me how I can pay for new essential appliances or a new boiler on £168 a week. There are many of us in the same boat I can only quote my circumstances

I would sooner have had a lower amount for the last five years than a few pounds extra when I retire. Who knows how much longer I will live to have the benefit of it. I'm a full time carer (with Emphysema) for my disabled husband and we live off his state pension, pension credit and my carer's allowance. I can't work and couldn't claim Universal Credit, if I try to claim the ESA working credit I have to be available for work, interviews, courses etc which I can't be. I had to get a grant from Age Concern to fix hubby's hoist because they wouldn't allow him home from respite until it was repaired.

We were told to have less children.
Now we import the young.

We were told we were OAP top-heavy - Yet these young generation will age too eventually.

They want to do away with the pension.

You see what you want to see and nothing more.

I have always understood there was no 'fund' set aside for retirement pensions. The changes were to me publicised since the 90s. With the new system credits are given when a parents gives up work to look after their children. This was not for those before the changes which I consider to be unfair. Why is looking after your children now of more value than previously. Loads of women especially had no option but to stop working. No childcare allowance for nurseries etc.

Many of the EU immigrants go back to their country of origin and don't become UK pensioners.

I actually see loads that I don't particularly want to see. I don't know about you.

4allweknow I'm not sure when Homes Responsibility Protection started. I thought it was before the mid 1990s changes, but I could be wrong. I do think it's unfair that I was a working mother, who was "opted out", yet I'm not eligible for the HRP extra years. If I'd have stayed at home, I would have been credited with the same number of years. How is that fair?

There are loads of unfairnesses which Waspi women could have campaigned to change, but they haven't. They wanted something totally unrealistic and which would have been unfair to those who would have had to pay, yet wouldn't have received themselves.

Mealybug I sympathise with you, but I don't believe it's the role of the pension system to fix that. The benefits system is too harsh, not pensions.

etheltbags You are lucky that you will receive the maximum pension. Many people (men and women) won't. You are one of the people who will neither gain nor lose anything, because the "old" pension amount would have been topped up with pension credit.

The problem for you is the benefits system for people of working age, which is totally inadequate. I have never been able to understand why people of working age are supposed to be able to cope with less than half that for pensioners.

So, you could have paid into the state pension or "contract" into a private pension using some of the money which would have gone towards the state amount. You made the decision that paying into the private pension was better for you.

I, on the other hand, did not contract out although I could, I was advised not to and took that advice. Everyone was recommended to take advice. So should I now be complaining that although my state pension wasn't reduced no one is paying me for an additional private one?

It sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too Jillybird. If you can have the full state pension could I have the extra pension I didn't pay for please?

Jillybird The reason Teachers' Pension affects state pension is because, like all people in a public service pension, you paid reduced National Insurance contributions.

Younger teachers now have to pay full National Insurance (12% of salary) plus Teachers' Pension contributions plus tax (of course) and paying back student loans. We were the lucky ones!

teacheranne and jillybird as teachers we paid into our teachers pension scheme and therefore were opted out of SERPS. This resulted in us paying less NI which in turn means we receive our TPS and our (reduced) SPA.

Recent medical research tends to show that we certainly live longer, but sadly are not necessarily healthy for longer.

IMO raising retirement age is a scam and all governments that are doing so are breaking the promises implicit all our working lives.

They should be ashamed of themselves, but of course they are not, as they are not living with the results of this.

It would be helpful to hear from some adult sisters and brothers who shared beds as children.