Mixed feelings about WASPI victory

[Fauxflowersnoflowers]

Early 40s here, so this doesn't as such directly affect me, but I've been intrigued by the story about the WASPI campaign and done a bit of reading around it and I'm still confused.

The changes apparently were in the public sphere since as early as 1995 and could have been known about. Many women were aware and did take financial steps to address the changes. The current case seems to centre around whether they should have been personally informed, not was the change fair.

WASPI just said on Women's Hour that they don't object to the equalisation of the pension age, but then callers were objecting to having to work longer and not getting a good retirement, so the two arguments seem to contradiction each other

Also, it seems misunderstood that a compensation payment would be a full reinbursement of the "lost" pension, from my reading it's more likely to be a fixed amount to recognise the fact they should have received a letter. Although again, it appears many did, just not everyone, so who gets the compensation? All of them or just some?

I suppose the other question is how do we pay this? Public services are already stretched badly, childcare costs are crippling and there is a bit of a worry for me that the funds to pay this are going to come out of other areas that will just make the loves of younger women harder and push their pension ages even further back, maybe into their 70s.

Feel really conflicted about it. On one hand kudos to the women for getting this far, but in the other it feels like a really clear example of the importance of properly understanding your own finances and educating yourself about your pension planning.

You are missing some of the nuances of the situation.

Some women born in the early 50s feel that they were not informed about the changes. I am potentially one of these women but in my view there was plenty of information out there. I certainly don't think I have any claim. However some women in this group asked for a pension forecast and were given wrong, misleading or delayed information. I think they have a legitimate claim if they can show that they took decisions based on wrong information that left them out of pocket. Ideally the size of their claims would be related to the actual financial impact on them.

Women born a little later were caught by the acceleration in 2011. I think all these women were unfairly and unreasonably treated and I think they all have a claim. This claim would be for the unreasonable treatment and I don't think it should depend on any actual loss. In many cases there will not have been a quantifiable loss as such. The impact would have been on lifestyle situations, such as having given up a job in the expectation of receiving a pension a couple of years later, then finding that they wouldn't get the pension when they were legitimately expecting it, and being unable to get another job for age or health reasons. Men were not caught by the acceleration because all it did was bring a woman's pension age into line with a man's faster than was originally planned. It did not change men's pension age at that point so they wouldn't have a comparable claim.

It's a shame that most of the reporting has skimmed over these nuances, that doesn't help anyone.

The petition was in relation to the introduction of New State Pension. State Pension has been legally defined as a benefit from the time of the1946 National Insurance Act, which applied from the inception of the National Insurance scheme.

No, it’s women born between 1950 and 1960.

Yes, I had to wait YEARS longer than those born merely months earlier. 1954 born.

The reality is that most did know, but just didn't like the change, but are now jumping on the "no one told me" bandwagon in the hope of some compo!

Why is planning for your retirement based on the information you are given, greedy ? She invested in property, but would not have acted as she did, had she known her pension would be delayed, leaving her financially screwed. That’s the point.

Well I honestly don't understand how that can be.

I can, thank you very much as colleagues just a year or two older got their state retirement pension as promised whereas I had to wait 6 years. The money makes a huge difference in quality of life.

When I started teaching, retirement for women at 60 was absolutely normal. I think we need to move away from 'my problem is worse than your problem' and look at 60 yr olds who were badly informed and unfairly treated.
I'm not unsympathetic to your situation, believe me. It doesn't remove the injustice.

Imagine an infant school teacher at 67???

Today's infant school teachers will be expected to work until at least 71!!

Nope. You need to educate yourself as to what actually happened. By fighting their case and winning, these women were shining a bright light on the incompetence with which this whole thing was handled, and the way in which real people were affected, and sending a message that government can’t expect to get away with shit like this so easily any more. That benefits everyone. And the fact remains that it will be years, if ever, that compensation is actually paid.

Is spending money you don't actually have on houses you can't really afford retirement planning?

I really think that the younger women on here dislike older women and hate that they even live after 60. But I have to say you will all be over 60 and the younger generation will be waiting for you to die. You hav'nt got the monopoly on youth and you must all really dislike your mothers. You all begrudge anyone getting anything its shameful.

It doesn't send any message. The people who made the decisions will not be the ones paying the consequences.

The ruling is about communication, not the change in the law itself. So basically, most waspi women would have experienced the same financial hit if they'd directly been told about the change. It'll be a very small number who could have changed things had they been directly told, as many had already made decisions such as early retirement, investment planning etc that couldn't readily be changed at the time the law was changed.

I think the graph shared on the post i replied to that was wrong or didnt have complete info as it didnt show that. That's what i was getting at.

I don't know what people are moaning about. If any compensation is paid it will be a tiny token gesture and years away.
The WASPI campaigners never expected to get their lost pensions back. That wasn't the point of this case.

I think tokem compensation for those who can prove they were not notified is acceptable but I don't think the waspi cause is particularly helping itself when the majority of the campaigners used on TV slots look fit, well , and perfectly capable of working.
So the moaning about financial ruin and lives destroyed looked a little hyperbolic.
I really wanted to shout at the television " well go get a job then" to the group shown outside the courts ...most in their "active wear" jumping about and shouting
While I'm mid 50's and exhausted and working 6 days a week

Exactly the same can be said for the way that over 3 million self employed, casuals and freelancers were excluded from covid support schemes.

Are all the waspi women going to campaign for compensation for those 3 million too? They were strangely quiet at the time of covid weren't they!

Likewise, no comment from waspi women about the postmaster scandal.

If people really want to influence change and a fairer society they need to stop being selfish and start to help fight for other people who are similarly affected by these kind of government level scandals and incompetence.

As someone nearly 60 myself I totally sympathise with younger women in this circumstance.

@Rosscameasdoody I think the graph shared on the post i replied to was wrong or didnt have complete info as it didnt show that. That's what i was getting at.

Oh they have commented about the post office scandal. Some posts on here saying it’s worse for WASPIs

I was thinking that they all look fit and healthy and probably much more able to work than I am. Hard to sympathise.

To all those who are complaining about their taxes going to fund compensation for WASPI women: whose taxes paid for the health service when you were born, your schooling, the roads, the infrastructure of your life?

Please don’t frame this as a generational war.

I had to work three extra years beyond my projected retirement date to compensate for the government change in 2011 because I only had six years’ notice. It didn’t give me enough time to do anything other than that. And it was long, unsociable hours so it has affected my health. Also, I was very aware that I was clogging things up for younger colleagues who needed to progress their careers.

Other posters have mentioned the inequalities WASPIs have already faced during their careers. In the late 1980s the pension fund at my then employers had no provision for husbands if we died in service yet it paid out to our colleagues’ widows. This discrimination was completely legal and women who complained were dismissed as feminist bra burners.

Yes, and I won’t get my pension til I’m 68… Life’s unfair - get over it!