Go WASPI!

The question is why did some people know and others not?
What happened to make the notices inconsistent from DWP?
My DOB is Oct 1954, I am a NHS professional, I got notified each time it was changed from 60, 63 to 66.
We all got notifications as I clearly remember staff room conversations.
There has to be a factor as to why, this inconsistent communication. Surely it wasn't difficult to post a notification to everyone concerned? Has any one been told why this happened as I have never read answers to this question.

I was born in September 1955. I had looked on line at my pension forecast and I had the required stamps to collect my pension at 60. I didn't receive any letters from the government and only found out about the changes in pension age from a younger colleague at work. At 1st I thought she was joking!
I finally got my pension age 66 and one month. I did manage to retire at 60 with a small private pension and my now husband supporting me.
I am afraid I am not so forgiving to those who say others should have known! How dare they insinuate the rest of us are stupid or liars. Just remember Karma is a bitch!
Anyway good on the Waspi women I wish I could have joined them and thank them for all their work!

eazybee - the reason it is so unfair is because it was not until our late 50s the system changed and so it was not remotely possibly to plan. Overnight our pension age was put back, for up to five years - had we known from the time we started work what the pension age would be when we retired then of course we would have worked to that end but we didnt. Retirement plans were abandoned and it was a nightmare for many of us.

Visgir1

The question is why did some people know and others not?
What happened to make the notices inconsistent from DWP?
My DOB is Oct 1954, I am a NHS professional, I got notified each time it was changed from 60, 63 to 66.
We all got notifications as I clearly remember staff room conversations.
There has to be a factor as to why, this inconsistent communication. Surely it wasn't difficult to post a notification to everyone concerned? Has any one been told why this happened as I have never read answers to this question.

I’m ex NHS too, and knew because we were told via the Superannuation and Pensions section in our Salaries and Wages Department when the age changed. I think we were the lucky ones though because our employer told us, I don’t remember seeing it on the news or in the papers as headlines.

I put in an FOI request to see if I had been notified and forgotten and they told me I hadn't. I wonder if they notified government employees and left it to the discretion of others?

That might explain the smugness of some on this thread - it's one thing to know if you've actually been told, and another to find out for yourself pre-Internet. As I've said, I did know, but I can't remember how I found out.

Doodledog

I put in an FOI request to see if I had been notified and forgotten and they told me I hadn't. I wonder if they notified government employees and left it to the discretion of others?

That might explain the smugness of some on this thread - it's one thing to know if you've actually been told, and another to find out for yourself pre-Internet. As I've said, I did know, but I can't remember how I found out.

I doubt it was government instruction to tell public sector staff Doodledog, in those days the NHS pensions team were on the case on behalf of the employees so I suspect it was their own initiative not a government directive - they no doubt wanted it to slip under the radar, which it largely did.

Good point. I don't know then. The public sector unions?

My sister made her working life and savings choices based on the fact she would retire at 60 but to find that she miscalculated completely because her pension age has risen by 7 years. She has intermittent heart and lung problems which is not be covered by long term ESA but had she received her pension at 60 would not be worried to death about how she is going to carry on working for several more years when she isn't well. She definitely feels cheated.

icanhandthemback

My sister made her working life and savings choices based on the fact she would retire at 60 but to find that she miscalculated completely because her pension age has risen by 7 years. She has intermittent heart and lung problems which is not be covered by long term ESA but had she received her pension at 60 would not be worried to death about how she is going to carry on working for several more years when she isn't well. She definitely feels cheated.

I'm so sorry to hear about your sisters illness. It's unforgivable that people are suffering so much because the DWP were negligent in their obligation to inform women well in advance that they were changing the retirement age and so quickly. None of us could prepare ourselves for the wait because we were not told it would happen early enough.

I was born in 1954. At the age of 58 I received a letter informing me that my state pension age was being put back from 60 to 62.5 years. It wasn't too unexpected and so I planned my finances towards that. I heard nothing more from the DWP. When I was 61, a colleague mentioned that her date of birth was very close to mine and she'd received a formal letter from DWP to say that her new retirement age was 64.5. I'd received nothing and so checked on the government website and, sure enough, it was true. On the day of my 64th birthday, I checked again and saw that, for the 3rd time, my retirement age had been put back to 65.5. Again, I'd received no formal notification but my colleague had. So, could the Perfect Pollies who were oh so well informed and are so contemptuous of those of us who were told nothing, explain how we were supposed to plan our financial futures when the goal posts were repeatedly put back by 18 month increments but no one thought to inform us? Instead of sneering at how thick and careless we were, perhaps you should be counting your blessings that, for some random reason, you were kept regularly informed when some of us were not.

I count my blessings that I read newspapers and follow current affairs. No random information from anybody.

BW

(Not so) Perfect Polly

Bully for you.

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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!

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?

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

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!

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.

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!!

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

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.