Go WASPI!

Chakotay not everyone was able to pay into SERPS. I didn’t pay into SERPS because I paid into a professional pension, and it’s a good job I did because my state pension is not generous, and is lower than it would have been if I’d had my birthday a month later. Women born March 1953 are disadvantaged, whatever you say, because they receive a lower pension for the rest of their lives and they are WASPI women who waited longer to actually be allowed to claim their pension.

@maddyone SERPS was automatic as it was earnings related and you couldn't just not pay into it, as you have a professional pension instead of SERPS it would be because you were contracted out of SERPS, you did this in two ways either you and your employer paid a lower rate of NI or you paid the full rate and some of your NICS were diverted in to your private pension you get a lower rate of state pension as you effectively paid in less, your private pension would have replaced the SERPS you lost the idea was that you would get the same or in many cases get more, that's why my sister who was also born in 1953 and did not contract out gets more than the old basic and I suspect when you add up your state pension and your private pension you will find you do as well, TBH many people do not understand this I am on several pension advice pages on FB and it comes up time and time again either from people who don't understand why they get less or people who get a pension forecast with COPE amount on it which they don't understand.

As I have said it also not automatic that everyone who gets their pensions post April 2016 will get the new full pension, government figures in 2016 showed that only 45% of women due to retire within 5 years of the new full rate coming live would actually get it and those ladies would be WASPI women (as I am actually) who also had to wait longer

I paid 50 years ni. I understand now about the contracting out although at no point was I told I was paying less ni until they changed the rules in 2016.
What I don't understand is what happened to the other 15 years ni as you only need 35 years for a full pension? That has never been explained.

Me to Hippie20. I am a WASPI women and had to wait 6 years to get my state pension. I have 41 years NI contributions but, because the majority of those were ‘contracted out’ I now don’t qualify for a full state pension. However, my public sector employer never gave me a choice about contracting out, nor explained the long term consequences for my pension.

I live in Central Beds. Nadine Norries who was vilified - I read today that she is a WASPI woman who campaigned on our behalf. Interesting she states that she never teceived any notification as states Carole Malone a journalist. So if high profile women didn"t it would indicate ordinary women didn't too. Our new labour mp couldn't be bothered to reply to me. Interesting that Labour previously supportive no longer willing to commit
I amno longer voting feeling totally disenfrantished.

Hippie20

I live in Central Beds. Nadine Norries who was vilified - I read today that she is a WASPI woman who campaigned on our behalf. Interesting she states that she never teceived any notification as states Carole Malone a journalist. So if high profile women didn"t it would indicate ordinary women didn't too. Our new labour mp couldn't be bothered to reply to me. Interesting that Labour previously supportive no longer willing to commit
I amno longer voting feeling totally disenfrantished.

Labour committed to it in February Hippie20?

Sorry, my mistake, I was thinking of the triple lock, not the WASPI payment. I can’t see them saying anything about that until the election manifesto.

Well Nadine Dorries and Carole Malone both high profile women state they had no notification
How many eorking class women read the times. Totally different era when women were expected to be homemakers, denied accesd to pension schemes and paid less than men.

Please excuse the typos.

Indeed, Dorries did speak in the House couple of times but she also used the platform to try to score party political points against Labour but mostly the SNP (who have done a great deal to further the debate). She then took the debate off in the direction of not wanting equalisation on the gounds of menopause and caring responsibilities which was not what the WASPI campaign was about.

Mel Stride has also been point scoring saying that Labour were in power for some of the years when particular DWP maladministration has been highlighted by the Ombudsman.

This whole debacle spans years when all three major parties were in power or power-sharing. This is a cross party issue.

I counted no less than nineteen Secretatries of State and eighteen Under-Secretaries aka Pensions Ministers who have had responsibility for this since 1995. If senior government didn't operate a revolving door, if any minister stayed in place long enough to get a proper understanding of the issue, we might have made some progress. It's quite clear the Mel Stride doesn't understand the issue or what the Ombudsman has said.

Thank you for being a voice of reason TinSoldier.

The Ombudsman has said that women weren't adequately informed after it was discovered in 2004 that some affected women weren't aware of the changes. The actual changes weren't within the Ombudsman's remit, no matter how unfairly women feel they've been treated.

We all know that women have historically (and currently) suffered injustices in the workplace and with regard to pensions, but that's not what the Ombudsman has commented on. The compensation is for maladministration by the DWP in one specific case. To be honest, I did know, so does that mean I won't be paid compensation, if indeed it is ever paid?

My own feeling is that women need to look at a broader picture. We've moved on from the days when a woman was expected to be a stay-at-home homemaker and wasn't allowed to take out a loan in her own name, etc. but there's still a lot to do and issues which need to be resolved around childcare, discrimination in the workplace and loads more. I also think that the cases of women whose pension age was delayed but still received the old pension needs revisiting.

Thank you Chakotay you are very knowledgeable about pensions and I have been educated today. Genuinely impressed by your expertise on the subject.