Go WASPI!

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

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.

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.

Please excuse the typos.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 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.

@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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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!

@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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

Hear you Biglouis. The whole thing is a debacle.

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.