To be fed up with the WASPIs' renewed campaign?

But it’s not about older women and their understanding! They -we - were not older women at the time the changes happened. This started in 1995, when the women would’ve been around 45. I’m a few years younger but I definitely remember because I remember the huge disappointment that I was going to have to work longer. Having said that, as things turned out, I needed the extra earning years to get myself a reasonable standard of living. Nevertheless, I was fully aware. There was a lot of talk about it. It was on the radio, in newspapers and probably on television.

People still think that they’ve spent their working lives paying into some government pension pot for themselves, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of the welfare system.

Exactly! They can’t expect people who know they will be worse off them to pay for this.

@blossomtoes I said it wasn't a perfect analogy of course (yes you can take a tax free lump sum from a DC pension pot but it will impact the annuity/draw down you can get later on.

My overall point is the "I paid in all my life" pensioners have often paid no where near enough tax to cover their state pension, they are in fact relying on current tax payers to fund them. And the problem with that is these days there are far fewer of us and far more of them.

It is refreshing to hear from the women who paid attention to government policies and made informed choices accordingly. In the media the waspi women are paraded as if all older women were incapable of understanding legislative changes.

So in reality the early 1960s born women are losing out the most

They didn’t. Women born in 1953/54 were the worse affected because of the short notice. You had 17 years notice after 2011, some early 1950s women barely got 17 months notice.

I was born 16 months after the cut off date to be a waspi women ( born mid 1961 )
I of course will not receive my state pension until age 67 . I grew up like these women being told I would be able to retire at 60 on state pension even during my early working years it was 60 . Some of my friends a few years older than me received pension at 65 and some at 66 but now it is 67 . So in reality the early 1960s born women are losing out the most but do not qualify if compensation ever happens .

Given the way pensions are funded, your £300k is a red herring, introduced purely to obfuscate. A DC fund gives you a 25% tax free lump sum. There’s absolutely no comparison.

@SuitcaseAndSecrets who owes you exactly? Certainly not current tax payers who will be the ones paying for any compensation.

Sadly you have learnt something that we subsequent generations learnt all too well and pretty early on in our lives - don't rely on the government to keep things the same or keep any vague promises that were made when you were young.

It was never addressed for the vast minority of us. Employers grudgingly capitulated in some cases, others found devious ways to try to get round it. If you’re going to try to defend unequal pay for women I’m out.

@blossomtoes £300k is broadly what you would need in a DC pension pot to buy the something that pays the equivalent of the state pension a year. It is not a very good comparison as the state pension is a state benefit not a pension, but the point is a lot of people banging on about how they paid in are utterly ignorant of the fact many have not paid anywhere near enough tax to actually fund what they get.

There was more than one change, the 1995 act, which phased in the change from 60 to 65, then the 2011 act which accelerated the change. The thing which still gives the WASPIs some hope of success is that the Parliamentary Health and Service Ombudsman ruled in 2024 that the DWP’s communication failures had created significant injustice, and called on Parliament to intervene. Having said this, as one of those affected, I don’t think the campaign will, or should succeed.

And there are separate court cases to address that. That anomaly is being addressed.

I'm a Waspie..baby boomer born 1958.
I worked in a very large catalogue company ( remember Littlewoods/ Grattan/ empire Stores etc .. when you would order from the catalogue and pay weekly).. it had a huge warehouse and offices.. l was in quality control.. Long before minimum wage.. we had both male and female working the warehouse.. fork lift drivers etc.. but the men were paid more than the women for doing the exact same job. It was back breaking.
Pensions were never ever mentioned.. no one paid into one.. wasn't the company policy. We were told we would retire at 60..
People who think we are not owed anything.. think again.

Nothing was stolen. I also worked my whole life and paid towards a pension which at the beginning of my working life I was told I’d get when I was 60. Then it was 65, now it is 67, who knows where it will be next.

But in the early 90s there was a massive campaign about pensions, it was clear there would come a time when we couldn’t rely on the pensions and my generation have known for a very long time the days of the government paying for your retirement was unsustainable and everyone, through their workplace was offered a pension. We were told to contract out of SERPS, which we did and that fucked us up even more. The Pensions Act in 1995 gave women 20 years of notice that they needed to make a change. If they chose not to do that, it’s on them. Paying out £££ because of “fairness” isn’t something we can’t afford. We have people who are genuinely in need and are genuinely working really hard to put a roof over their heads and their benefits are being cut.

Like every other pensioner, pension credit is available to WASPI women if their pension isn’t enough. It’s time the generation who has been the recipients of the most generous government help in the last century where every other generation has had to pay for it, to realise that they are not automatically entitled to something just because they feel they have been screwed over. Welcome to our world.

The state pension is £12k a year. How long would you have to live to get to £300k? 😂

They have paid no more into the system than men of the same age

Many of those men were paid more for similar work for years. A lot in some cases.

But I have children and never got anything either from the state toward them.

and everyone will have about 45-50 years by the time they retire these days give or take. That’s pretty standard.

@notateenietiny Sorry to inform you those 50 years of NI contributions got spent on the generations above you. That is how it works.

Also unless you paid in over £300k in NI you certainly did not pay enough to fund your state pension

Nothing was stolen from WASPI women. They have paid no more into the system than men of the same age and no more than the younger people they expect to fund their compensation will have to pay.

Your pension contributions go towards the pensions of people who have already retired. The scheme has never guaranteed that by paying in you will get a state pension yourself.

It is likely that people starting work now will contribute to other people's pensions all their working lives and get nothing from the state when they retire. Why should they have to fund compensation for women who are whinging about not getting a state pension at 60?

Listen darling. I worked and paid in for 50 years, six years longer than my pension age was supposed to be when I started work. I never got a thing other than my wages because I didn't have children. Now I get my state pension and my private pension and I'm not apologising to oiks like you for taking a pension from a system I contributed to for 50 years. 50 years contributions. How many have you got?

Well nothing was stolen was it? Pensions are a benefit like any benefit and can be changed at will by any government.

but that said, my mum is at that age and she knew and is completely and utterly perplexed how anyone didn’t know. There were letters, adverts and it was all over the news at the time. And weirdly I was young in the 1990s and I remember it even though I wouldn’t really have had a clue what it all meant. I definitely remember some of the adverts.

whilst I do feel sorry for the people affected, all of us will have to retire later than we would like.

I'm mid-forties, and I'm pretty sure the predicted retirement age has changed during my working life too. I was for 67, and now it's 68, with potential to go up again.
My mum was born in 1952 and had to work an extra 2 years and 3 months before she hit retirement. She knew in advance, had regular post about it and we spoke about it when it was mentioned on the news etc. I don't understand how so many people 'didn't know' either.

The big issue is any compensation will come from working people who will not see anything like the retirement WASPI women got.

That is the slap in the face.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman looked at the WASPI claims under the last Conservative government. They recommended compensation for each affected woman. But that government didn’t pay out, and now they’re in, Labour won’t either, despite supporting the cause when they were in opposition. Beats me why they ever bothered with the PHSO investigation then, the cost of that was money pissed in the wind, wasn’t it? I am a WASPI woman, vintage 1955, and I’m not holding my breath for any payout. Ever. No matter how many court cases.
Come to think of it, can the campaigners get done for vexatious litigation as they keep coming back over and over again?

I think a lot of posters on here who do not agree with compensation are 'older' people. I will be 70 this year and was made fully aware of the changes as were all of my friends and colleagues.