WASPI Women - getting compensated

We are listening to, we just don’t agree. Absolutely nobody was given three years notice of a six year delay to their pension. The worst affected women were given five years notice of an 18 month delay to their pensions. From the ombudsman findings “The revised timetable capped the further increase consequent to the 2011 Act at 18 months (relative to the timetable set out in the 1995 Act), at a cost to the Exchequer of £1.1 billion” . The ombudsman report also confirms those women were all sent letters during 2012/2013.

It's not the change of retirement age - it's the notice given of that change. My retirement age has changed three times and I am not a Waspi woman. I will retire at 67 in 2035 and I would not appreciate being told in 3033 I had to work another six years - would you?
Pps are not listening to the reason for the campaign (although I agree it has been muddled) they are just jumping in with 'well I have to retire at 68 so why shouldn't You' with side helping of 'greedy boomers' thrown in for good measure.

I’m not a WASPI woman - too young. I also had the understanding (it wasn’t a contract) that I could get my pension at 60 when I started work in 1986. It changed. Twice. Ikbew about it and had to suck it up. I don’t understand why it’s different or why anyone needed to plan. Just keep working, or use other pensions if you have them, like the rest of us.

I didn’t mention awareness. Your post bears no relation to the one of mine you quoted. And I agree with your analysis @SpoonBaloon, it’s been a shockingly bad campaign.

It doesn't really matter anymore.

They have been denied compensation for a second time after rather shamlessly trying to work around their final legal loss (which was a complete repudiation of their arguments)

Now they will just have to live with the vitriol and shame of their arguments. This was a colossal (and expensive) waste of Government time.

This is one of the biggest issues with the WASPI campaign. The women have never been singing from the same hymn sheet.

There has never been any consistency over what they were actually asking for. The face of the campaign seems to have depended on any given woman electing herself to speak to the media, and then the next time a completely different woman speaks to the same source but says something completely different.

It doesn’t help that some of the women are not particularly sympathetic. I remember one who claimed she had worked for “thirty years!” and so couldn’t possibly be expected to wait any longer for her pension. Another who took umbrage to a fact read out by an interviewer or minister and just went on to screech “ridiculous, ridiculous, ridiculous” over and over again until they cut off her mic, instead of actually having a conversation.

And so many of them seem to have been teachers or headteachers, from affluent backgrounds and in middle class professions despite not being particularly well-qualified. They seem to have lived lives of comfort and relative privilege. Very much the female equivalent of the “mediocre white man” we read so much about.

On the other hand I have a very working class family member who worked for many years as a hospital cleaner and she knew exactly when her pension age was, because she had to! She didn’t have the luxury of ignorance, even though she’s the last person to claim she’s “good with money”.

There’s an irony somewhere in that this has been an incredibly disorganised campaign despite being led by the sort of people who would claim their biggest strength is their “organisational skills”.

Sounds like the DUP did quite a lot of awareness work, even though some of it was not perfect. From your link:

76. DWP told us it made considerable efforts to communicate State Pension age changes and to ensure those affected could access detailed and bespoke information about their State Pension entitlement, including:

• running pensions education campaigns, which included information about State Pension age equalisation
• publishing ‘numerous’ leaflets from 1995 onwards
• making State Pension age clear in the 22 million State Pension statements issued online, by post or over the telephone since 1995
• issuing around 17.8 million automatic pension forecasts (APFs) between 2003 and 2006 with a leaflet explaining the increase in State Pension age for women
• making information about State Pension age available on its website, including an option for individuals to calculate their State Pension age
• writing to 1.2 million women affected by the Pensions Act 1995 between 2009 and 2011, and those affected by the Pensions Act 2011 between January 2012 and November 2013.

Pensions education campaigns

77. The evidence we have seen confirms DWP did make considerable efforts - across a variety of formats and using a range of media channels and stakeholders - to promote pensions awareness and planning for retirement through its pensions education campaigns. This included:

• a TUC-led ‘Pension Power for You’ campaign and helpline in 1997, and a second TUC helpline campaign in 1999 that was partly government-funded
• a ‘Monopoly’-themed pensions campaign (June 1998 to April 2000). Adverts were displayed on buses and trams, in telephone boxes, on fast food containers and on screens in Post Offices. Adverts, advertorials and inserts were placed in national and local press, magazines and catalogues. Information was shared through mailings and mailshots (based on marketing data), in pensions packs, on flyers and at exhibitions. A new series of pensions leaflets (PM1-8) and a pensions website were also introduced
• a ‘Working Dogs’-themed pensions campaign (January 2001 to March 2004). Adverts were placed in national and local press, on postcards, and shown in cinemas and on television
• various waves of issuing information about pensions, including information about State Pension age changes, direct to people who requested it, who had responded to surveys and to advisers.

Someone else inventing things about me. It's stupid, pathetic and childish. Don't say that people have said things that they haven't.

I'm a late 60's boomer. My response to the increase in retirement age was to simply continue working for a further 6 years. I'm grateful for the free bus and reduced price train travel I receive. Also WFA, free dental and eye check. Concessionary prices for art galleries etc. I doubt the current and future generations will fare so well.

You keep changing the story. First it’s about the changes. Or accelerating the changes. Then it’s about not getting enough notice. Or not being told clearly enough. Or not seeing any news articles for twenty years. Now it seems to be that your generation were so uniquely hard done by that you deserve oh so special treatment.

I can accept you being angry because you feel hard done by, but there is no need to make things up about me.

You say I am centred around money, nothing could be further from the truth. I have plenty of money and don't expect any compensation. I'm afraid I think that people who rely on unpaid childcare are centred around money, obviously they would have less if they paid for childcare.

I suppose some grandparents are short of things to do and don't mind being taken advantage of but I have my own busy life. Helping adults to parent isn't really helping, too often it seems to de skill them and they become even more dependent. My children have been completely independent since leaving university. Our relationship is one of equal adults.

"Perhaps I should have followed my own advice'
Why on earth do you think I didn't?
I brought up two families (2 husbands), gave up work to look after them myself and would not have dreamt of asking old age pensioners to help me. I loved every minute of it, but have no interest in children who aren't my own.

You should try not to make things up about other people to fit your own narrative.

No you're talking rubbish, this did not happen 😉
Older women suffered no hardship, we were living the life of Riley with our feet up all day.
No mother has ever suffered like today's 30-40 somethings. They are the benchmark from which all suffering, unfairness and hardship is measured. 😂

Yes we were paid less than men even for the same job. In my job, women couldn’t join the workplace pension scheme. Women were overlooked for promotions and many of us gave up work when we became pregnant.

I became a single parent in the 70s, I couldn’t get a mortgage. I was told patronisingly to go home and talk to my husband.

@AirborneElephant of course we understood the rules, did you think you were very clever to imply we didn't?

The rules were that we could be paid less than men, that we could be sacked for being pregnant, that our jobs only had to be kept for us for six weeks after giving birth, that we got six weeks maternity pay, that workplace pensions didn't have to be open to women and that there were very few nurseries, let alone funded childcare. The one concession women got was a pension at an earlier age.. We knew those rules, then the rules were changed not once by twice , in some cases with little warning. No wonder people feel aggrieved.

Not in my circles. Grandparents rarely live near enough to provide childcare.

Just to say I'm generation X and won't reach state pension age until 68. Its not just millennials and gen z

I should say that my children always knew that they shouldn't have children if they couldn't look after them themselves. I can think of nothing worse than minding babies for other people.

Of course you did. Classic!

I can now see why you think occasionally spending time with your grandchildren is akin to raising them.

I love and am interested in my grown up grandchildren, and we all get on well!

From your perspective, sure. Most grandchildren are raised to be polite to and respectful of their grandparents, even if they did actively chose to be absent for a large part of their lives.

This might be difficult for you to hear, but lots of grandparents actually like spending time with their grandchildren and don’t view bonding with their grandchildren as “minding” them. Shocking, I know.

Anyway, we are now veering off topic, but your posts seem to be very centered around money.

“unpaid slaves raising their grandchildren”

”when it helps the children's parents to avoid paying for childcare so they can work”

It’s no surprise really, that you feel so strongly about being compensated by the Government and entitled to such compensation for retiring when you couldn’t afford to pay for it yourself. Remember what you always said to your children.

I should say that my children always knew that they shouldn't have children if they couldn't look after them themselves.

Perhaps you should have followed your own advice.

Yes, it’s important that people take responsibility for their own lives. Having children, understanding the rules for their own retirement….

I suppose if you call it ""occasionally spending time with their grandchildren"" it makes you feel better, but in my experience of friends doing this the time is always at school pick up, or other times when it helps the children's parents to avoid paying for childcare so they can work.

And in so many cases the grandparents were never asked if they wanted "to spend time with their granchildren" it was just assumed that they would. They are mostly too polite to complain. (I should say that my children always knew that they shouldn't have children if they couldn't look after them themselves. I can think of nothing worse than minding babies for other people. I love and am interested in my grown up grandchildren, and we all get on well!) Clear boundaries are wonderful things.

The expectation that grandparents give freely unpaid childcare, is pretty much the norm

It’s the norm? Really?

Firstly, the majority of children in the UK under 5 are at nursery/or at a childminder.

Over 5s are in school full time.

I can imagine situations where there are grandparents genuinely raising their grandchildren in kinship placements etc, where there are addiction/mental health issues in the family.

But occasionally spending time with your grandchildren, god forbid, without the parents present, isn’t raising them FFS.

That’s not the same as raising their grandchild. I provide childcare for mine but it’s not 7 days a week.

Have you been living in a cave? The expectation that grandparents give freely unpaid childcare, is pretty much the norm.

Raising their grandchildren?

RAISING?

Lol.

Don’t make me laugh.

You are so shockingly far removed from the real world.

How true!

I think you'll find they only see them as worthless until they want them to be unpaid slaves raising their grandchildren.