WASPI Women - getting compensated

I could swear I didn’t have letters about my pension -did you work in the civil service or something

It's strange because there was so much publicity about it. I had letters for several years telling me when I would be receiving my state pension🤷‍♀️

Did you see it on the TV and hear it on the radio?

I'm also a WASPI. I can accept the decision not to pay and I expect this to be simply procedural to put a full stop on it. What I could not stomach was all the Labour MP's including, Starmer, Reeves, Phillipson, Haigh and others crawling all over the WASPI cause when they were in opposition and calling the conservatives all sorts of names for their injustice and promising if they get in they will right the wrong, only to turn their backs on us the minute they came into government. That was truly despicable.

Again though, if that is the issue why is the WASPI movement campaigning for compensation for people unaffected by the changes the Coalition made and also not campaigning for all the people affected by the Coalition changes?

I don't think any government actually did anything wrong. But I do think if WASPI had been clear on its actual grievance rather than flitting between the amount of notice, the nature of awareness raising measures and the Coalition changes and if it had focused on the worst affected rather than making ridiculous maximalist demands it might have been able to tug enough heart strings to get a result. As it is it has got nowhere, comes across as utterly tone deaf to the current fiscal situation, and looks set to throw away yet more of its supporters' money on another doomed legal challenge next month.

I’m a WASPI women - my contract with the government when I started work was that I would retire at 60 - it changed mid contract but was luckily able to absorb this - many weren’t able to. I don’t want compensation as I was able to pay more into my company pension to compensate but I did do another 6 years of work. I worked for 50 years - been retired now for 2 years - I can’t imagine doing doing the job I did now - I’d be knackered!!

I agree the country can’t afford it ….NOW but it could have paid something in the past or at LEAST acknowledge that they’d fuckd up and many women were left in very difficult circumstances. My DH earned a high salary and we are comfortably off in retirement but had I been left to my own devices, brought up DCs then worked in NHS , I would be skint.

*Doubt it will

How could they know the gov of 2010 were going to reduce the time and then raise the age you receive pension??????

I am a Waspi woman and was definitely not informed of the change (and I am organised). However I don’t think that blanket compensation should be paid as I think my generation had it better than the younger generation and quite simply the country can’t afford it.

Don't it will nor should it. I'm a Waspi but I knew all about the changes from the get go. Never took my off my pension status from the minute I started work 😀 I haven't a lot of sympathy for those who don't keep up with current affairs. Everything surprises them 🙄

I remember it being in the press, on the news and chat shows in the mid 90s, I find it hard to believe so many didn't really know.

Men were also affected by the Coalition changes, but not quite in the same way. The women most affected were already finding it challenging to make up their pensions because of equalisation, when they had a limited number of years left to do it in. The Coalition changes were added on to this making it even more difficult. The men did not have the original equalisation problem to deal with in the first place so the subsequent Coalition change was not such an issue for them.

I don't know why the WASPI movement is seeking compensation for everyone, but having read the Ombudsman's report, it said that in practical terms it would be impossible to identify the particular women most affected. For that reason it suggested that instead of payments made to individuals based on their specific losses, the Government might wish to consider a blanket payment across the board. I assume that if the Ombudsman has found it impossible to identify particularly disadvantaged claimants then no-one else is likely to be able to either.

IS that the issue? If so why is the WASPI movement seeking payment for the entire contingent affected by the changes starting in 2010 and not just the ones affected by the Coalition changes? And why is it not campaigning for the men affected by the Coalition changes?

This is a quote from the FT which explains the issue
From the 1940s until April 2010, the UK’s state pension age was 60 years old for women and 65 for men. In 1995, new legislation set out a timetable to increase women’s pension age gradually from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2020 to make them equal. In 2010, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government brought forward the deadline for the equalisation to November 2018, about two years earlier than originally scheduled. In the same piece of legislation, it also raised the state pension for men and women to 66.
So women had the original decision made to put off pension age to 2020 and informed in 1995 but then the Cameron Lib coalition moved the goalposts by Two years then added another year to 66 . Def not fair.
thank you FT for explaining this

They did though. Everyone knew.

the government had 60 to plan, they didn’t

This. Why does other people's poor planning have to be my problem?! The money could be way better spent elsewhere. They still had the luxury of retiring young which l don't

As a waspi woman who waited 6 years longer than planned YANBU and I am embarrassed by these claims.
I would rather my Gen Z kids got a better deal.

What multimillionaires are they not taxing and why do you assume none of those are women? Why do you assume no WASPI generation women are multimillionaires? Or is your misogyny and ageism just so internalised that you can’t imagine a successful or competent woman?

‘‘The one thing I used to admire about the conservatives is that mostly they had those arguments in private and presented a decent facade of knowing what they were doing.’

Really!!! They mauled each other to death in full public view after the brexit vote.

There look incompetent by backing waspi women whilst in opposition and then dropping them like a hot potato once they came to power.
I think it does need looking into properly.
Not having sufficient notice of pension age moving and communication handled really badly is deserving of compensation.
These are women who have worked, paid taxes and in a lot of cases also raised families they deserve respect and to be treated fairly.
I don't know all the ins and outs of the communication or advance warning issues but it does deserve an independent investigation and if fault is found compensation should be given.

Fair enough.

Already a thread.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5442756-govt-considering-u-turn-on-waspi-compensation?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share