WASPI Latest

Visgir1

I too was like. "Teacheranne.. I have a NHS pension we were kept up to speed on changes.
I did the same, paid extra into my pension and knew I was Contracted out. Tbh it isn't that different from my DH pension.
I appreciate not everyone had company /Private Pension and these ladies shouldn't have to struggle.

You are right very little press coverage on this, however I am sure I got a letter? I do remember my Unions and pay office team re - issuing the information on Update letters.

Me too - but I still think the accelerated timescale for the raising of the pension age for women was unfair. We were the lucky ones, because we were kept informed, and more importantly, we also get another pension, we aren’t totally reliant on the state pension. For those who are, bringing the implementation dates forward reduced their ability to plan. That’s actually a bigger issue in my mind than the notification process failures.

I too was like. "Teacheranne.. I have a NHS pension we were kept up to speed on changes.
I did the same, paid extra into my pension and knew I was Contracted out. Tbh it isn't that different from my DH pension.
I appreciate not everyone had company /Private Pension and these ladies shouldn't have to struggle.

You are right very little press coverage on this, however I am sure I got a letter? I do remember my Unions and pay office team re - issuing the information on Update letters.

Wow easybee- what an sad attack on your fellow women - and how like a male response! You attitude is exactly what these Tories males want us to accept!
Facts: firstly many (probably most) women did not receive any notification of the changes to their pension. Indeed such personal letters as were sent out, were sent out 14 years after the 1995 Act. This is a key tenant of the claim. Further widely publicised - hmm...I don't remember headlines advising us that women born in the 1950s were going to have to work longer to get their pensions. A few articles, yes - but this was definitely played down. Before you argue the toss I was actually involved in running a large company pension scheme at this time and was concerned how little press these changes had. The further change in 2011 was brought in faster than originally promised - with little or no notice for women to replan.
Do you know how much it would cost to finance the three years (min period) between when pension was due and actually being able to receive.? For many of us we had planned our working lives to go at 60 - and indeed most employers had pension schemes based on women going at 60!
How about employment opportunities for women between 58-65? One of the toughest times to get work as a woman and I worked voluntarily in Women in Management helping given get or change work - so I have first hand experience of their challenges!
Yes - it is sad this subject has had so little interest on Gransnet! But then when you look at some of the highest respondent issues, it tells you a lot about the interests of this cohort.

eazybee

I fail to see why public money should be wasted on women who failed to investigate their pension provision and pretended they were kept in ignorance when it was widely publicised in the press and media for many years.

I kind of agree with this although I’m not sure that some women pretend that they were kept in ignorance. There was indeed a lot of publicity about the pension changes when they were initially proposed and after being set in place but I don’t remember receiving a letter directly to me. Lots of women would not have read the newspapers or appreciated how it would affect them. Luckily my union arranged a number of workshops to explain the impact of the changes and I made sure I went along.

I did make provision when I read about the changes in the newspaper as I was working and in the position of being able to afford to increase my contributions to my pension scheme. Had I been a stay at home mum I would not have been able to do that so would be in a very different financial situation now. I was able to compensate for not getting my state pension at 60 as my company pension was sufficient for me still to retire at 60 due to my extra payments.

As a teacher, I was also aware that I was contracted out of the additional state pension so would not get the full amount. Instead I paid a lower NI contribution so again, I made provision for that.

eazybee

I fail to see why public money should be wasted on women who failed to investigate their pension provision and pretended they were kept in ignorance when it was widely publicised in the press and media for many years.

Durrr…..there was maladministration. Read the headline post please.

I misquoted IDS in my post of 10.29. What he said when told about women’s financial hardship was actually they’ll go away sooner or later. I like to be correct about such things - unlike the government

Lizziedrip, I agree, that is infuriating.

Whenever women ask for anything we are 'moaning', 'grasping' and 'unreasonable'. We have to ignore the sexism and keep our eyes on the prize.

How anybody knows what other people knew at some time in the past is beyond me, and assuming that women who had been held back by unequal treatment in their youth could somehow plug pension gaps of many years is short-sighted in the extreme.

The 4.6 million men who “retired” at 60 to get a pension top up paid by the taxpayer

Like this waste of public money, introduced by Thatcher, that continued for over 35 years. It allowed men to retire ‘5 years early’ and have their NI contributions paid by the TAXPAYER, so they would still receive their full state pension allowance. The gov refused to give women the same rights (after initially promising that they would). I realise that any payment to a group of ‘moaning old women’ would be deeply unpopular and that’s why it will probably never happen. Fine, but it won’t stop me going in about it because it’s unjust!

Paying us anything wouldn’t be popular with the younger generation, many of whom seem to think us Boomers stole their future. I have mixed feelings about it. While I’m all for equality, I’ve never felt the employment market is a level playing field for women, and it certainly wasn’t back in the 70s and 80s. If I got a payout it would probably go to help my children anyway, like much of the money I earn.

I fail to see why public money should be wasted on women who failed to investigate their pension provision and pretended they were kept in ignorance when it was widely publicised in the press and media for many years.

Yes I too thank Waspi for their fight on the behalf of so many
of us. Although I live in France I worked for 16 years in England before leaving and I'm still working as being divorced
my pension is a bit scarce. Infact if I hadn't had 4 children and hence got credits I dread to think . I feel a little afraid to
retire.

I too fear we’ll get nothing Razz but we won’t sit down and shut up like the gov hoped we would. They underestimated the strength of this generation of women, in fact of all women. What a disgusting way for a gov to treat its matriarchs.

The UK government should be made to pay the £3.8billion - to charity if it can't be paid to the women's estates.

^Commenting, MP Richard Thomson said: “I continue to receive regular approaches from constituents on the injustice they are suffering because of the UK Government’s maladministration, which has already been confirmed by the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

“Detailed analysis has now been carried out for the WASPI campaign which concludes with the shocking statistic that 220,190 women will have died in the seven years since the campaign started to get women born in the 1950s compensation for failures to inform them about the pension age moving from 60 to 66.

“It is estimated that the UK Government will save something in the order of £3.8billion on compensation likely to be awarded as a result of this particularly grim statistic.

“I’m therefore asking the Pensions Minister to do the decent thing and start the process now of putting in place compensatory payments – or even interim payments – before more of the women affected pass away.”^

From Grampian Online.

WASPI are great, I'm a member, but I fear we will get nothing.

That is their thinking lixy. Apparently, when Ian Duncan Smith (minister for work & pensions at time of robbery plan) was told that a significant cohort of women would suffer financially, his response was lots of them will have gone by the time it comes round. I’m sure the current government will do everything in its power to avoid giving us any compensation, but the fight for right will continue. ??

Of course it's all been deliberate.

Thank you for the update. I think they will find some way to wriggle out of their responsibility. How many more WASPI ladies will lose out?

Thanks for this, LizzieDrip.

I really hope that any compensation is backdated and that anyone who has died before getting restitution has their dues credited to their estate, as the government has dragged its feet so much on this, and it's hard to believe that this wasn't deliberate.

I have followed all that Waspi do, more power to them. It is amazing that this group do so much for us women, who have been deprived of the knowledge of the change in the pension age. I sign every petition, write to my M.P. and do all they advise. I would hope we get some recompense but, cannot see it amounting to much. But anything would be an achievement, and rightly so. Thankyou to Waspi for all their continued efforts

Thank you for the update.
Cynical self thinks they are hoping it'll be too late for most of us by the time they finally get around to doing something about repairing the hole in our finances.

I hope so, ?although the government will do all they can to get out of paying anything,?

Blossoming

*…pension