Go WASPI!

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

Apologies, wrong forum…was supposed to be under SNP

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)

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.

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

Ouch, that was a double whammy.

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

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.

Well said, Hippie20!

Doodledog

Well said, Hippie20!

Definitely

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.

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

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

This is the next legal challenge.

Hear you Biglouis. The whole thing is a debacle.

Hippie20 - 100% support. Well said and well done.

Molly10

Hippie20 - 100% support. Well said and well done.

Ditto the above. Well done all those supporting this cause. Shame on the ones who don't.

Thank you for your support
At the Rally were brave women who had mobility problems. How sad that women at this time of life had to stand in the bitter cold and rain and snow to try to make the Government listen to them. Some women had walking sticks and mobility aids. The Police were wonderful and sympathetic and kind. Even helping women over the road.
I'm so proud to be part of this brave and courageous generation of women.
I hope justice will prevail.

Well said Hippie 20-it’s ok for women who have occupational pensions/DH’s pensions but for those who have had low paid jobs with no occupational pension it’s been dire.
Particularly I hate it being called a benefit-I’ve been paying into SP since I was 15 for goodness sake! It’s ok for those in physically easier jobs too! It is right that there should be an equalisation between men and women.
That this WASPI victory was not covered by BBC is shameful-given the coverage of French protests!
I’m not affected but I know many who are and I gladly support them-it could have been me!!
Will be sending a further donation to WASPI-well done!

Spinnaker

Molly10

Hippie20 - 100% support. Well said and well done.

Ditto the above. Well done all those supporting this cause. Shame on the ones who don't.

I have been with this from day one. I organised a meeting of 50s born ladies and pestered our then MP who finally agreed to meet with us. About 12 of us turned up at his office and we outlined our plight and he promised to do what he could which turned out to be nothing! He was Lib Dem and more interested in sorting out litter bins and public toilets.

@Primrose53 My MP is a Conservative and will do nothing except do easy jobs locally. He just wants an easy life . No empathy for Waspi women nor for many other worthwhile causes.

Interesting what people are saying about their local MPs regarding this.
I wrote to my local MP back in 2012 citing the same dates example that @Primrose53 gave in an earlier post and querying why I had to wait so long for my state pension compared to a friend who was born just 3 months before me. His answer was ‘it’s an EU directive so that we are in line with the rest of the EU’ but no explanation as to how the dates had been worked out!
Interestingly Ros Altman, who was our Pensions minister at the time and whom I thought was on our side, was promoted to the House of Lords, but I’m sure that was purely a coincidence!

Newquay

Well said Hippie 20-it’s ok for women who have occupational pensions/DH’s pensions but for those who have had low paid jobs with no occupational pension it’s been dire.
Particularly I hate it being called a benefit-I’ve been paying into SP since I was 15 for goodness sake! It’s ok for those in physically easier jobs too! It is right that there should be an equalisation between men and women.
That this WASPI victory was not covered by BBC is shameful-given the coverage of French protests!
I’m not affected but I know many who are and I gladly support them-it could have been me!!
Will be sending a further donation to WASPI-well done!

Sorry, but it’s not ok for women who have occupational pensions and/or husbands. We didn’t get them free - they were part of our salaries and we could have opted out of paying them. We didn’t, because we had planned our retirement based on getting both the occupational ones and the state ones we all paid for, and women who have worked all their lives don’t always want to be financially dependent on our husbands in retirement. I agree that the media coverage has been shamefully low, and share your support for the WASPI cause, but I wish the divisive talk would stop.

The state pension is part of the benefit system! Why do you object to the word "benefit"?

Someone answered you and told you it was the 'next legal challenge' however it will be doomed to failure as both schemes are totally different people seem to think that if you reached pension age before 2016 you only get the old basic and if you reached pension age after 2016 you automatically get the higher amount neither is actually true, people reaching pension age pre 2016 had the opportunity to pay into the second state pensions, graduated retirement and SERPS which were earnings related and S2P which had a lower earning threshold and included any NI credits given with some benefits, SERPS alone under the the new rate could give people up to £204.68 a week in addition to their basic pensions, I don't know anyone who gets that amount but my two older sisters and my husband who are on the old scheme get way above the old basic and actually a lot more than the new full pension due to SERPS, yes not everyone could pay into the second state pensions but the OPPORUNITY was there.

This opportunity has been denied to younger pensioners since 2016, some including myself due to the transition rules get a protected payment that made up for the SERPS we would have got under the the old scheme so get more than the full pension so in actual fact a lot of younger pensioners will lose out especially those with little or no NI history pre 2016, my son will never get the same state pension as my husband and myself, even though his earnings would have been enough for him to be automatically enrolled into the SSPS if the rules had not changed, there is unfairness on bith sides.

Sorry my last post was in response to @chrissie13 when she posted ' 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. But something went wrong