Q&A - Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI)

There's a meeting between the APPG and representatives from the various campaign groups on April 25th. The purpose is to discuss the findings of a survey the APPG did last year and to put in into Carolyn Harris' Private Memebers Bill which we hope will be heard after the summer recess. There's more cross party support for us 50's women so you never know......

I’m the same as you MissA (68+) and fear that with ever moving goalposts and all the extra stresses and strains thrown at us we may never reach that golden age of retirement . As Harris and Paddyann have said that is probably the general idea .

Tend to agree with you paddyann. The WASPI movement seems to have ground to a halt; its been months since I saw anything in the news about anything new being discussed. I have a feeling that we've been kicked into the long grass.

68+ for me, at the moment.
Who knows, it may go up again?

Harris27 I believe thats the plan ,we'll all die before we can claim a pension...

Hi gillybob that's so unfair I feel for you.my husband is only 3 years older than me and in much better health thank goodness . However what about the fact that the goal posts are moving rapidly we might not reach retirement, worrying thought.

I’m in a similar situation to you Harris27 I’m 56 and my pension forecast shows that I will be 68+ before I can retire. My DH and I have a just over 10 yea age gap and we had planned to retire together when he was 70 and I was 60. Out of the window now. Can he work until 78? I very much doubt it.

Sorry present job.

I'm 58 married in poor health and will have to work till 66 . Working in childcare for a pittance.just want yo have some options before I retire. If id known sooner I would of tried harder to get out off my otrsdnt job.

It’s all a mess isn’t it - no wonder those that could invested in buy to let as a pension pot and look where that’s got us.

Yep, I’ve got (or rather haven’t got) one of those pensions as well, maryeliza. I could be a poster girl for pension schemes good, bad and disappeared. Three years (fortunately, just three years) paying into a scheme in the 70s that was embezzled by its trustees. They went to jail, but that was no comfort to the people who lost out. And then we WASPIs are told by our critics that we should have made better provision for our old age. Easier said than done, especially when so many of us had periods of working part-time in an era when it was okay to deny part-timers membership of a pension scheme.

I’d like to think things could be better for our children, but I’m afraid they’re on track to be much, much worse.

On the other hand there were the occupational pension schemes like Maxwells.......and BHS. I really am not saying that what’s happened with the state pension is OK because bad things happen with other pensions. I suppose what the whole sorry mess tells us is that we ( collectively) have not taken pension provision seriously enough in this country for a long time and have been willing to put up with politicians who didn’t want to have well funded pensions ( for the hoi polloi because it would have meant higher taxes- or less generous tax allowances for those in receipt of high salaries and excellent pension schemes.

True, maryeliza54, many occupational pension schemes have changed a lot recently as well, and not usually for the better, unfortunately. But in the case of mine at least, the conditions stayed the same for any member up to ten years away from their retirement date, and we all received letters telling us about the changes and how they would affect us. There was a consultation period as well, when we were invited to comment, not that the more cynical amongst us thought it would make a blind bit of difference....

To be fair, my understanding is that just about all occupational pension schemes have changed enormously over the last years - later retirement ages, huge increase in employee contributions and for many loss of a defined benefits scheme in favour of money purchase and all this without employee approval. As an unaffected person re the state pension, however, whilst I accept there had to be equalisation upwards to 65, the great injustices are not having a fool proof system of notifying every woman when the charge in legislation actually happened and secondly not just doing it incrementally a month at a time as I believ3 it first started to happen. As for the level of the SP, I believe we have one of the lowest amongst the major Eiropean countries. Labour tried to improve this way back with SERPS but that has now gone. A real turning point was when MT broke the link between pensions and earnings

Agreed, Day6. As another of the worst affected, losing 6 years of SPA, I fully appreciate that the state pension age has to be equalised for men and women. I would accept a loss of 6 to 12 months pension as part of a fair and gradual move towards equalisation. This is how it has worked in other countries, but unfortunately successive UK governments have ignored the issue for years then rushed it through by throwing us under the bus. Like you, I have a small occupational pension that I paid for over many years, so cannot claim any benefits. I was made redundant just before my 60th birthday and decided to help my DC with childcare as I always promised I’d do when I retired. They needed me then, not 6 years down the line. I know I am luckier than many, but we are eating into the savings we thought would be our cushion in later years. Many women are in desperate straits. At the WASPI demos, I have spoken with some of them, including two who have had to sell their homes, and one with a terminal illness who knew she would not live to get hers but was still fighting.

but I feel the Waspi ask is not realistic

I do.
We have paid into our state pension all our working lives.

It is NOT a benefit.
The government has STOLEN from us imo. If any other pension fund provider had done this - moved the goalposts and withheld money that is rightly ours there would be law suits galore.

I agree that we need age equality regarding pensions but the governments argument about how much time women would be on a pension does not hold water for women born in the 1950s who have been cheated out of their entitlement at very short notice and who are now suffering financial distress because they'd factored in state pension when theyd reached the end of their working lives.

I certainly did. I am entitled to no benefit top ups because I have an occupational pension which is 'enough for one person to live on' according to the DSS.

The cost of living has risen and my pension is a tiny, tiny fraction of the salary I earned and used to manage on. I struggle to manage my finances now, and this is not how I envisioned life in my 60s.

I feel very angry about it. Women in their 40s now have plenty of time to adjust. Women in their 60s have been left high and dry by state robbery.

I'm really concerned I'm nearly 58 working in poor paid childcare and have arthritis/ asthma and struggle daily with this, However I've decided to bite the bullet taking painkillers and drugs to combat pain and keep going no choice 66 befire I retire x

GrandmaMoira, the higher rate pension was discussed earlier in this thread. Many of us will not get it, as years in which we were opted out do not count towards it.

It’s very frustrating for WASPI women to be told that well, they may have no state pension or bus pass till they’re 66, but at least they’ll get a higher pension then. Not true for many of us. I will be getting my pension on my 66th birthday in 3 years time, and it will be at the old rate, as this is significantly more than I would get under the new system, with a 41 year NI record.

'I’m not trying to minimise this but won’t it be a little bit sooner than you think or have I misunderstood.'

I shall go and have a look maryeliza. Thank you. I have stuffed all the pension stuff in a drawer in fit of pique. They moved the goal posts twice, didn't they? I remember thinking I will be just a couple of months off 66 before I get anything.

It's still a lot of years to be without the pension I thought I would get three years ago. I don't go to the hairdressers, dentist or optician. I cannot afford to. My children paid for new specs for me for Christmas last year. I found having to ask quite humiliating.

The other unfair issue with pensions is not being mentioned much. There is a new higher rate pension being paid to those who retired since last year. All those of us who retired before will continue to receive a lower amount so we have a two tier income level for pensioners.
One other thing for WASPI women, is that most of us started work at 15, so a working life of over 50 years for some mid 50s born women. I think setting a maximum of 50 years would help.

Day I don’t quite understand - For Tiziz to get her pension next month ((Nov 17) her birthday must be before 5 September 1953. If you are 6 months younger that puts your birthdate approx March 1954. I thought that if you were born in March 1954 (from 6 onwards) you would get your pension in September 2019 so another 2 not 3 years to wait. I’m not trying to minimise this but won’t it be a little bit sooner than you think or have I misunderstood.

Tizliz, the whole thing is extremely confusing and unfair.

You are getting your pension now (October). I am a 54 baby, six months younger than you yet I have to ait until I am 66 before I get mine.

It is so unfair. I have ill health and no disposable income. I am entitled to no benefits to bridge the gap because I have an occupational pension, earned over 30+ years. I too was a single parent bringing up children alone, claiming no benefits and too bogged down in everything to worry about life after work.

I feel so cheated. I didn't want to be a burden on the state. But now in poor health and older I NEED my state pension in order to aid the quality of life. I have been without this pension for three years and have another three years to wait...I am being denied £40,000 and travel concessions which would change my life enormously.

It's not a benefit, it is a pension, a contract we signed when we entered into work, entitling us to a pension at the age of 60. That is what we all paid into and worked towards and we have been robbed.

I did check it RetiredRGN and you're right, it is 65.5, not 66.5. I corrected it further up thread. I'm still miffed about it though.

Chewbacca Im June 1954 and will get mine March 2020 so your 66.5 years is wrong? recheck

That's not strictly correct. I will receive exactly the same pension at 66 as I would have at 60. All to do with COPE and not losing out