To think the back to 60 campaign is grabby

[Neaoll]

It's been known about for a long time that state pension ages would be equalised.

State pension is just unsustainable, it was never supposed to be something people claim for 20-30 years. Was for people that had a hard time so they didn't starve to death in their last few years. Now it's a top-up to the richest part of society. It should have been linked with life expectancy a long time ago.

I'm in my 40s and dont expect to ever get a state pension. I've been contributing to my private pension ever since I worked to support myself.

They may have had low house prices but interest rates were sky high compared with now

Well that old chestnut certainly needs retiring.

Yes, the most annoying/unfair thing is that while we knew & accepted that the pension age was going to rise, originally it was to be phased in gradually - but then another change was brought in which made the situation much worse for women of our age.

Many women also say they had no notification of the changes.

Honestly, some of the snide or victim-blaming responses on here are shocking.

I'm 67 and I am aware of how unaware those women under the age of about 55 are of how conditions were with regards to employment 30,-40 years ago.
My sister worked for M&S in the 70's it was the policy then that when women gave birth they could not return to work! There was no pension scheme for women to join.
I recall applying for a job with Nat West but turning it down because men were paid at a higher rate for the same job (they had no pension scheme for women either)

I was lucky I was a civil servant so I was able to pay into a pension but when on maternity leave in 1981 the time allowed was very limited and as I was on maternity leave I wasn't considered for promotion (it wasn't allowed as maternity leave was considered as long term sick leave!)
I returned to work but there were no nurseries around, hardly any childminders so I employed a "Nanny".
I was well paid but after paying for the nanny and my fares to work I was left with very little for my trouble!
It was not financially viable with 2 DC's.
As to Mortgages, it was impossible as a woman to get one.
I apllied for one once (as a married woman) and it was explained thatI would have to sign something to say I would not get pregnant within the first 5 years of the mortgage period!

It was very much different times and I think the OP should consider herself very lucky to be so very fortunate that she wasn't working in the 1970's!!!!!

Interest rates were higher but the total amount was much smaller, the amount as a multiple of average salary was much smaller, and you got tax relief on the mortgage interest payments. MIRAS

Swings and roundabouts.

My sister in law got hers at 60, never worked and my mother who also never worked gets £240 per week, I won't get anything like that. It makes my blood boil.

How would they qualify for state pension if they have never worked? You have to have sufficient contributions or credits. It's hard to see how they would have had enough credits for the time they were bringing up children to be able to qualify on that alone. And how is your mother's state pension so much more than everyone elses?

@madcatladyforever - think that might apply to some younger women too though. Why should only women born in the 50s get better state pensions when they already have (as a general rule and certainly applicable to you in the NHS) had access to better workplace pensions?

I wholeheartedly agree with you @AudacityOfHope.

There seems to be a very judgy tone in this thread with little empathy for the many women who have been caught up by this issue who may not have able, for many reasons to get their retirement provisions sorted.
Let’s not forget the hundreds of thousands of hardworking folk who’ve had their company pensions eradicated due to unscrupulous financial dealing by pension providers.

You seem to be under the impression that these ladies have had the same opportunities from birth that you may have had.Many women born in the fifties have never had the chance to attend Uni, or even stay on at School post 16 ! Working class women were supposed to get a job and probably only work up until getting married or having children.They would often have children at a young age ,and would often have large families .Those who did work were often in low paid posts and work in shops /dinner ladies and so on .They were told to expect their pension at a certain age and would not have been in a position to top it up or save money anyway .Now the rug has been pulled from under them and they are quite literally paying the price !

@HazelBite but that was 40 years ago. These waspi women have had decades since then to make it up. It’s not sufficient to pay them government funds.

@LittleandOften

There is some misinformation on here, particularly about maternity. Do people not realise that the whole idea of maternity leave/pay as we know it is a very recent phenomenon? Even though it was officially introduced in 1975 it was still not open to many. When my mum had me and my DB in the 70s, she had to resign from her teaching job, as did most women. This created a big hole in the pension pot and women have had to fight to get this redressed.

@Mrsmuddlepies, @JinglingHellsBells, @TalbotAMan

A bit late to the party, but yes, my mother was also forced to resign from her permanent job as a teacher when she became pregnant in 1970. She did teach, if and when she could arrange childcare, during the early seventies, but only as a supply teacher or at evening classes. Gone was the security of a permanent job and a pension. She returned to a permanent job in the early 80s, but by then the damage was done.

@dottiedodah that’s rubbish. My dm and da are working class women who worked all their life at least part time. And it was not common for that generation to have large numbers of kids.

Also @dottiedodah women who didn’t work were not entitled to a state pension.

My mother was another one forced to resign her job in 1971 when I was born. She did however reenter the workplace 10 years later and worked til 60, putting money into a private pension as she did so.

My MiL stopped teaching for 5 years whilst her children were small and went back in 1968. I would say most if their friends stayed home with the children until they were school aged then went back to work. It was very unusual (certainly in our LMC circles ) for mothers not to work at all when the children were school aged.

zsazsajuju My Mum worked all her life too ,I was simply pointing out that for a lot of women there wasnt the same expectations of a career in the terms that we would expect now .Possibly not common to have large families, but we certainly knew some .My friend was one of seven children and there wasnt a reliable method of contraception until the pill came about in the early 60s !

InfiniteSheldon above said pretty much what I think. I am 57, getting arthritis as well as ridiculous meno symptoms which mean I dont get much sleep. Also have an elderly mother who is likely to need more input from me soon as well as a daughter who would love free childcare if it was on offer. I work almost full time in a responsible but underpaid role with no decent pension as it wasn't a thing when I was a young worker and subsequently I have always been low paid with no pension provision until very recently.

I cant see me being able to work effectively until 67/68 and there is definitely age discrimination at play when I apply for other jobs so I very much hope my company doesnt''close down for the next 10 years which actually seems unlikely. I think we should all be allowed to retire by 65 at the latest and I will have worked and paid in for 42 years by then.

I think the Government should be prioritising jobs for the young not keeping older people at work if they are ready to retire. A full cost benefit analysis should be considering societal needs and pressures not just the cost of benefits/education versus pensions.

My mum gave birth (to me) in the 70s, and have to leave a job. Then she got another job when I was little and went back to work full time. She is 80 now so not part of this group which are a generation younger. I think some of you are getting your dates mixed up. And we were very much working class, my parents did ok at school in that they got O Levels but they were hardly part of some kind of elite.

Haven’t read it all but would just like to add that yes of course the age needed to be raised but unfortunaty the way it was done has affected more than just a few women!
Born mid 50’s and having children early 80’s I assumed my state pension would be paid aged 60. I was a teacher on and off for nearly 40 years but not full time so the opportunity to build up a large work pension was limited ( part time etc added up to 16 years pension over 40 years)
I received a letter about 8 years ago saying my pension age would be 62 yrs 5 months. I had no further letters and can only see that it has increased to 65, then 66 by logging onto gov.co.uk. That also shows that because I have been in a work place pension that I still haven’t enough years for a full qualifying pension!
The only reason why aged 63 I’m not still working full time is that I sadly lost my elderly parents recently and a small inheritance enabled me to pay off my mortgage. I’m also trying to fix the missing years of n I contributions by paying voluntary contributions and I also look after grandchildren for 2 days a weekend so that helps with n i contributions as well.
I’m not grabby and am just getting on with it, but I do support the waspi campaign however.

The government seem to forget that a lot of these women have brought up families because it was expected that women would give up work when they had children, there was no free hours childcare or wraparound care in schools, many of them will have paid the reduced NI contributions that married women used to be able to pay. Plus many of them will have cared for aging parents, the first question asked when an elderly parent needs care is, could your children care for you? When their own children start having families, many will help out by looking after grandchildren. They will haved saved the social care budget a lot of money & missed out of making NI contributions, they have been unfairly treated & should get their pensions at 60.

Also @dottiedodah women who didn’t work were not entitled to a state pension
Not true my MIL never worked out of the home. She married at eighteen, lived to be ninety six and never worked. She certainly received a state pension which seemed unfair after not contributing at all.

I may be wrong here ,but I thought that women were given a Pension, if they were a housewife with years caring for children counting (up to 12 maybe )or possibly on the married womens stamp !

I am a WASPI - born in 1956. I have worked full time since leaving college up until now, had only weeks off (as was the norm then) in maternity leave with both my children and have always paid the full stamp. I am "lucky" as I am still fit and healthy and working full time in a job which doesn't age discriminate so I will be able to stay in paid employment until my state pension kicks in at 66/67. I can't afford to retire before then as I/we couldn't afford to pay the bills. I know a lot of people of my age are angry because it was the expectation that we could retire at 60 and no-one was banging a drum to tell us the rules had changed until relatively recently when it was too late to do anything about it. I totally agree that men and women should get their pensions at the same age but think that those of us who are caught in between should have been given our pensions on a sliding scale. I have friends just slightly older than me who are now getting their pensions but I still have years to work and have paid way, way more than the amount necessary to quality. Do we get this money back? I think not. We literally have been paying out this money for nothing at all.

Even if you have never worked you would still get the basic State Pension up to 2016. Now women are expected to contribute to their pensions through NI contributions.
So, all the poor old ladies who never fancied working, still got their state pensions until three years ago.

@dottiedodah You get some years equal to paying NI if you were a full time carer for children at home, so your eventual pension allows for that but to get the full pension you need 35 qualifying years either made up from employment or some years of your own NI.
I think the days of the 'married woman's stamp' are long gone (my mum had that via my dad but she is 92!)

Of course it had to change, No-one disagrees with that. The problem is the lack (and change) of notice. We planned for our retirement, with the expectation of retiring at 60. To suddenly have to work an extra 6 years, with no time to plan (or save) accordingly is unfair. I'd paid sufficient years of NI by 60 too. I didn't even gain from the increased pension, as this was cancelled out by the change in SERPS calculation (so THAT was money down the drain). This was typical short-term government thinking - let's screw women for a quick buck.

@Knittingnanny Were you not invited to pay in a few hundred pounds to top up your pension pot? I was sent letters like that in my 50s but carried on working and still am (paying NI) so have in fact overpaid the 35 years needed for a full pension.