AIBU in thinking the government have made the correct decision not to blanket pay all WASPI women £3k? This goes against the Ombudsman recommendations to pay between £1k-3k to every WASPI women.

Sorry but that’s just plain ignorance after all the years they had to do so.

That’s exactly right. The 1995 changes were well publicised. The 2011 ones weren’t - and they were the ones that had the greatest impact.

I think was the fact that there were two changes, one well publicized, one not. So people not affected, or affected by the first but not the second could feel adverts were everywhere and people were talking about it, and people who were affected by the second could be unaware - though they should have been aware of the first change.

I'm in my 50s. I've checked my state pension age and how many more years' wworth of NI I need to make. If during that research I'd discovered that my retirement age was later than I thought it was it would be a disappointment, but I'd accept that I'd just have to suck it up and work longer.

What exactly would you have done had you found out before your 50s that your retirement was going to be a few years later than it was for your parents' generation?

I think there probably were a small number of women who genuinely had no idea. But when the possibility of extra money arrived I truly believe that many many women that knew full well about these changes started pretending they didn't.

The greedy ones ( who probably massively outnumber the genuine ones ) spoilt it for the genuine ones

Of course I did eventually, once I was in my 50s. I discovered that my pension age had moved from 60 to 62, and then much later to 66.
You can feign as much shock and disdain as you like but retirement really wasn't on my radar in my late 30s when I'd just had a baby.

I paid into a private pension that paid out at 60 so that bridged the gap but many women didn't have that.

I'm not actually opposing the decision to disregard the recommendation here, just putting my hand up as one of those who didn't know.

@Papyrophile how has the change in IHT ripped a big hole in your pension plan (genuine question)?

That is true. Still a short notice financial loss for a family. Especially if the pension was to be used to pay IHT on a family home in the SE.

They aren't going to take money from you.

At least IHT only applies to what you leave behind when you’re dead and don’t need money any more.

Absolutely the right decision. As a younger middle aged woman I find the special pleasing of a relatively small cohort of ignorant women very embarrassing.

This is far more of an injustice. Six months warning that pensions will be subject to IHT compared to 15yrs warning you will need to work to the same pension age as men.

And at no time between the age of 37 and when you decided to retire did you think to check the situation with the state pension you were relying on? That's gobsmacking.

Oh come on. By picking up the phone and phoning the department of work and pensions to ask. Like they will have rung their workplace pension provider to double check what they would be getting.

Whilst I don’t feel that compensation should be paid I do accept that some people probably didn’t know, or understand, about the changes.

I used to work for the DWP and I thought I was fairly clued up when I took early retirement with 39 qualifying years for my pension. I read about the changes in 2016 regarding pension age. I also saw that 35 qualifying years were needed for a full pension, so thought I’d be fine.

It was years later that I found out that my 39 years don’t all count, and I am no longer entitled to a full pension. I could probably pay to bring it up to the full amount but don’t plan to yet as the goal posts have been moved so many times I don’t know if it’s worth it.

That said, it is what it is and although I feel that I have missed out, I don’t think it’s up to anyone to compensate me.

Just in case any politicians or civil servants are reading this, PLEASE could we have a cross party commitment to not rip up pensions legislation with every budget. At almost 70, I don't have the luxury of years more work to repair the huge hole that Rachel Reeves tore through the pension plan I have been working on since the early 1990s. I thought I had made sensible plans, under the rules, according to every single word of pension legislation since 2001. But it appears they can be re-written to take 40% of everything.

Most people watched the TV after their children were in bed. Did you never watch the news on the television?

Thirty years ago I was 37, there was no internet or social media. I was up to my ears with a baby and toddler, was working and I doubt I read a newspaper or watched TV news for years.
So call me stupid if you like but it passed me by.

Having said all that I still think it's unaffordable for the country to pay it. I do resent the glee shown by many on MN against fellow women.

It’s not the sort of thing people are interested in for Pinterest.
You could go to your county archives.

I disagree that everyone knew it was going to happen, although I did. But although I was born in 1956, I went to university (free) and prospered during my working life. There were many more women of around my age who didn't understand the statements issued. I do feel sympathy for them having the rules changed quite abruptly.

Are there any old screenshots of these adverts? Just asking as ive seen plenty of screenshots of vintage Christmas adverts from old magazines so there should be some of this too right?

Before the internet information was widely disseminated:

• in libraries
• in citizens advice bureaus
• in employer leaflets on pensions
• in the newspapers
• in the radio & telly news broadcasts

Yes, it was very well known.

Rubbish.
https://pensionaccess.co.uk/the-pension-timeline/

People talked all the time about women's pension age increasing to the same age as men's. It was obviously going to happen.