Go WASPI!

Well said, Hippie20 at Wed 05-Apr-23 20:18:44.

It's apparent that our government has caused so much distress to so many women born in the 50s. We have been treated shabbily. I do hope we get some acknowledgement of this and suitable compensation for our losses. .
We must stand together.

Doodledog

Well said, Hippie20!

Definitely

Well said, Hippie20!

I was one of the thousands of women approaching 70 years of age, who stood in the snow and rain at the Fight Back Rally outside Westminster in March this year. As per usual we were basically ignored by the media, in particular the BBC. However, they reported the French protests about the raising of the pension age in France to 64 years old. The raising of our pension age was never about "Equalisation" but about raising money, from women who they thought were an easy target. Ros Altman stated that she was told by Ian Duncan Smith to ignore us and we would go away.
They very much under-estimated my generation who fought for the equality, that young women benefit from today.
Where was the "equalisation" for us who started work at 16, most did not go to University and start work at 22 like today.
Where was the free child-care and equal pay and being able to join pension schemes?
It's an absolute disgrace and I despair of women who do not support us. Some single women without occupational pensions are in dire straits.
It has been found that DWP is guilty of maladministration and even has recently as January this year a lady received a letter from the DWP stating that a woman's pension age was "60".
We will keep fighting, although many of my generation have sadly passed on without receiving their pension.

@maddyone I hadn't realised just how much ladies born in March 1953 were disadvantaged until you explained. That is truly terrible.

Ouch, that was a double whammy.

Well said maddyone - we March 53s were really let down!

you can’t have it both ways

I didn’t get it either way way Primrose and neither did Chrissie. Chrissie and I are both WASPI women. We had to wait till we were 63 for our state pensions because we were born in March 1953. Had we been born in April 1953 we would have been on the new state pension because the change over date was 6th April 2016. We missed out on the higher new pension by a week or two but still had to wait longer to claim it. We are now on that lower pension for the rest of our lives. That’s being hit two ways, not having it all two ways.

DWP failed to adequately inform 3.8 million 1950s born women of changes to State Pension age, according to a ruling by the Parliamentary Ombudsman (BBC news report July 2021)

Apologies, wrong forum…was supposed to be under SNP

I see Peter Murrell has now been arrested…finally the whole story is about to come out!

chrissie13

Primrose53

I never understood why friends who were born before end April 1953 got their pensions years before me. For being born just 6 months after them 4 years were added to my wait.

Please don't forget that those of us born in March 1953, although we got our pensions at age 63 we will have to go the rest of ours lives on the much smaller old pension as opposed to the new pension for those born 6th April onwards, a difference of almost £2,500 a year.

I don’t mean to sound uncaring, but you can’t have it both ways can you? I know a few women older than me who have been getting their pensions since they were 60 but now they have discovered those of us who got our pensions at, say, 65 are getting a higher rate say that’s not fair either.

Easybee, That’s not nice or really acceptable, is it because you won’t be included

There's a very interesting FOI on the WASPI website in which they have proved for someone like me, born March 1953, (ie originally expecting to receive my OAP in 2013), my letter was sent 2011! What a difference if there had been proper communication in 1995/6 - we would have had a chance to plan and save!!

I checked my state pension age in 2016 and have a dated letter from the DWP stating my retirement date as my 60th birthday in 2017.
I made plans regarding support and care for relatives based on that date.
It’s 6 years later, and I’m out of savings but still have 6 months to go before getting a penny- and it will be less than it should be because I haven’t payed NI contributions for the last 6 years.
If I had known earlier, I would have made different decisions. I would also have made different financial choices. My relatives would have needed state funded care support.

What a lively discussion! Personally as a woman born in 1956 this meant I had to wait until last year to receive my State Pension. I am luckier than some in that I managed by some luck to be in the right jobs, mostly part time, where women were suddenly 'allowed' to join the company or local council scheme. Because we Waspis worked a large portion of our lives in part time and often low paid work (we only needed pin money didn't we?) we had little opportunity to build up any kind of savings at all, let alone a pension fund! I remember encouraging young women, who worked 5 hours a week as "dinner ladies" to pay their tiny contributions as their employer also paid in which they had not realised. I met one of them recently who was thankful as she had been able to retire a little earlier because of that advice. There's no getting away from it, women have always been undervalued, and this has been the crux of this pension age change. BTW Happy Easter!

Born 1951, I waited around 15 months after 60 for mine.

I won’t get my pension until I’m 66. I’m 64 now. I was aware that my pension age would rise as part of equalising pensions, but was originally told it would be 64, then the goalposts were shifted and it’s now 66. I have public sector pensions which pay out at statutory pension age. When I started paying into them, SPA was 60. It’s galling to see the pension age keep rising in my annual statements, while the value of my currently frozen pensions diminishes. I had a heart attack when I was 60, it would have been good to have been able to retire, but here I am, still working. I’m just hoping that I make it to state pension age - my sister who died at 62 never did. By the time I retire (as long as it isn’t raised again), I will have worked for 50 years. Surely that’s an awfully long time to have to wait?

Well done the WASPI gladiators! I think the key thing, whether or not women were aware of the change, is that in our working years we had very little opportunity to build a pension. Pension Schemes for women not in the professions were extremely sketchy. In my case, (December 1954 birthday) I worked 13 years for a state school in a support role, but there was no pension scheme available for support staff until I had already worked there for 6 years. Then moved on to an independent school. Again, no scheme for support staff initially, and when a scheme was introduced, I only got about 8 years in. I did up my contributions at the end but have ended up with the state pension plus about £400 per month.
In addition, I paid an additional 6 years of NI and tax. Yes, I think we were well and truly screwed!

not everyone has time outside of their work commitments to read up on everything outside of their interestsmout of work and otherwise

Quichette

The French give 2 years of pension credit for each child the mother has. My Maman got 4 years credit. She was a Doctor and worked on until age 70 anyway. Perhaps something the UK should consider as having children is still rather handicapping to women's careers?

The UK already does this pension years are credited alongside child benefit which continues until your youngest child is 12

The French give 2 years of pension credit for each child the mother has. My Maman got 4 years credit. She was a Doctor and worked on until age 70 anyway. Perhaps something the UK should consider as having children is still rather handicapping to women's careers?

StoneofDestiny

It still comes back to the point - whether some got a prior notification or not - the time scale was too short for people to make significant changes in their life financially and emotionally - particularly when they had worked towards a different date for decades.

This.

It still comes back to the point - whether some got a prior notification or not - the time scale was too short for people to make significant changes in their life financially and emotionally - particularly when they had worked towards a different date for decades.