Petition on Why the old state pension is £200 pm less than the new

Women born in 1952 lost £20k by having to wait an extra two and a half years to get their state pension, and when they received it, it was at the old rate.

PuddyCat

You can't have it all ways. Those who had to work until they were 66 had to work for longer than you to receive anything at all so how do you think those people should be compensated? You've enjoyed 6 extra years of retirement, pension and all associated benefits and you now want the extra money too? Give me strength! As if the WASPI women haven't been screwed over enough.

No, I don’t think those who retired at 60 expect to get extra. They received their pension at the original age.

I received mine at nearly 63, but am certainly on the ‘old’ pension.

I am pleased to have been getting it since then. I think a colleague who is about 4 months younger than me had to wait a bit longer, but then received the higher amount.

PuddyCat

You can't have it all ways. Those who had to work until they were 66 had to work for longer than you to receive anything at all so how do you think those people should be compensated? You've enjoyed 6 extra years of retirement, pension and all associated benefits and you now want the extra money too? Give me strength! As if the WASPI women haven't been screwed over enough.

There are a lot of WASPI women on the old pension who have been screwed over in a different way, as I said above. Women really shouldn’t be fighting other women on this.

And as for the suggestion that 76 might be the equalisation age, I think the last of the women who were able to claim their pension at 60 are already approaching or over 76 so we’ve almost reached the point where this could be a good argument.

You can't have it all ways. Those who had to work until they were 66 had to work for longer than you to receive anything at all so how do you think those people should be compensated? You've enjoyed 6 extra years of retirement, pension and all associated benefits and you now want the extra money too? Give me strength! As if the WASPI women haven't been screwed over enough

I agree PuddyCat. I also agree that women shouldn’t be fighting other women about this issue. That said, there have been some ‘heartless’ comments made by GN posters on previous threads about WASPI women - saying we were stupid not to have known about the pension age increase etc. The entire system is clearly a mess with unfairness for women in many areas.

I wont get mine until I'm 67 yet I keep hearing on television reports that women are eligible at 66 .

Smileless “Anyone born after March 5, 1961 aged 62 years old or younger today won't be allowed to access their state pension until they're at least 67.”

Does this fit with your circumstances? If not, it might be worth contacting the Future Pensions dept. Unfortunately, the state pension age appears to be increasing all the time😢

Yes it does Lizzie, thank you for the information. I've missed out on a year by exactly 2 months.

Smileless2012

Yes it does Lizzie, thank you for the information. I've missed out on a year by exactly 2 months.

No, if you were two months older, you would have received your pension at 66 years 10 months, so you've missed out on two months.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-age-timetable/state-pension-age-timetable

Sorry to hear that Smileless. Even a few months makes a difference when we’ve had to wait so long I was practically counting the days by the time I got mine!

I've just had a letter about my pension increase. I also get a pre 97 additional pension and a post 97 additional pension which take my overall payment up to the £200. So there are adjustments which increase the payment.

Factsheet 19 - State Pension - Age UK www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/factsheets/fs19_state_pension_fcs.pdf

Lots of information in here.

The current state pension age is 66.
It starts rising again from 6th May 2026 and reaches 67 by 6th March 2028.
This affects people born between 6th April 1960 and 5th April 1977.

No, the last of the women able to claim at 60 are not 76.

A friend was 60 in February 2010. She received her SP then, it changed two months later in the April.

She was 74 in February just gone.

PuddyCat

You can't have it all ways. Those who had to work until they were 66 had to work for longer than you to receive anything at all so how do you think those people should be compensated? You've enjoyed 6 extra years of retirement, pension and all associated benefits and you now want the extra money too? Give me strength! As if the WASPI women haven't been screwed over enough.

No need to be rude.
Women have always been disadvantaged one way or another.

The then Chancellor announced that women's pension age would be increased to match that of men back in 1993.
I remember the announcement even though it didn't affect me and remember commenting to DH "Why don't they make the pension age 63 for men and women?". Women's longevity is generally greater that of men too.
It was on TV, in the press and all the financial pages.

I don't dispute that everyone should have received a letter about the changes, that was an administrative failure.

As has been pointed out, women over age 76 who retired at 60 on the old pension will now be disadvantaged.

Glorianny for the majority of older women, their SP will not amount to £200. I have some added, some taken away, but it remains well below the new SP.

Chardy

Women born in 1952 lost £20k by having to wait an extra two and a half years to get their state pension, and when they received it, it was at the old rate.

I was born in 1952 and I was just over 64 when I got my pension, so I wasn’t getting my old rate pension 6 years before the others on the new rate.

nightowl

The old pension wasn’t only claimed at 60 Doodledog. Because of the gradual raising of the pension age for women, there are many of us who didn’t get the state pension until we were closer to 65 but are stuck on the old pension scheme for the rest of our lives. It means that two women born days apart will have received their pension around the same time but one will be on the significantly lower rate. It has nothing to do with contracting out or SERPS but was just another money saving exercise.

True. That's unfair too. I really think we all need to stick together, as we all paid in as we were asked, so we should all get out as we were (tacitly) promised. It's nobody's 'fault' if the systems weren't up to scratch, the money wasn't ring-fenced or we didn't pay enough. That is the responsibility of the government, and people shouldn't suffer if they (governments) get it wrong. The more different things we ask for, the easier we are to pit against one another, and anyway, there is no reason to begrudge anyone anything. Solidarity and all that!

nightowl

PuddyCat

You can't have it all ways. Those who had to work until they were 66 had to work for longer than you to receive anything at all so how do you think those people should be compensated? You've enjoyed 6 extra years of retirement, pension and all associated benefits and you now want the extra money too? Give me strength! As if the WASPI women haven't been screwed over enough.

There are a lot of WASPI women on the old pension who have been screwed over in a different way, as I said above. Women really shouldn’t be fighting other women on this.

And as for the suggestion that 76 might be the equalisation age, I think the last of the women who were able to claim their pension at 60 are already approaching or over 76 so we’ve almost reached the point where this could be a good argument.

Women really shouldn’t be fighting other women on this.

I agree.

The women I feel sorry for are those caught in those few years where they had to wait longer to receive their SP but are on the old, much lower rate of pension.

Thanks for the helpful factsheet V3ra.

I remember hearing about the pension age changes in the 90 s, it was on all media but as has been said a letter to all involved should have been sent. It has obviously been a shock for many.

We retired at 60 because that was retirement age. For the most part we started full time work at 15 often because of the need to contribute towards the household expenses. There was no question of further or higher education at least not in the area I lived.

My life would be much improved by an extra £50 per week SP, but fear we older women will continue to trail behind the rest especially if they stop the triple lock.

I can remember when pensions were so low the media reporting older people were found frozen or starved to death. It was shameful.

I am surprised at the lack of support from some posters, shouldn't women be supporting each other?

Just sign the bloomin petition , please 🙏

I don't understand this. Surely the SP for everyone has increased each year? I'm 77 so under the "old"scheme and I've just received a coding notice telling me that my weekly pension will £227 for the next tax year.

Dinahmo

I don't understand this. Surely the SP for everyone has increased each year? I'm 77 so under the "old"scheme and I've just received a coding notice telling me that my weekly pension will £227 for the next tax year.

I have no idea how that is made up, Dinahmo

The Old State Pension for 1923/24 is £169.50

Mine is less than that because, yes, many women were cheated over State Pensions in various ways for many years.

The women I feel sorry for are those caught in those few years where they had to wait longer to receive their SP but are on the old, much lower rate of pension.
That's me. My younger sister who paid in much less gets the new one so unfair. We all have the same living costs..

Dinahmo I get nowhere near that and I pay tax. My small civil service pension is worth very little.

nadateturbe

Dinahmo I get nowhere near that and I pay tax. My small civil service pension is worth very little.

We were contracted out too.

I only realised, when growstuff pointed it out, that I was contracted out of the SP for years then received my public service contributions back as "a gift" 🤔 when I left to have a family, so no public service pension from those years.
Double whammy.

nadateturbe

^The women I feel sorry for are those caught in those few years where they had to wait longer to receive their SP but are on the old, much lower rate of pension.^
That's me. My younger sister who paid in much less gets the new one so unfair. We all have the same living costs..

My younger sister who paid in much less gets the new one so unfair.

I'd get a full New State Pension for the number of years contributions I made. Instead, it is only a proportion of the 39 years required.

There is so much unfairness, it's difficult to know where to begin.

karmalady

There is a huge discrepancy for a lifetime, could be over 30 years. Someone said that 76 is the age at which we should all receive the same higher state pension, I agree.

That makes sense. Also under the old system if women decided not to retire at 60 and carried on working I believe they stopped paying NI contributions, those carrying on working through no choice as couldn’t claim til 66 or 67 still carry on paying NI which across 6/7 years amounts to a huge amount for some.

Whoever said pensions are a mess is correct!