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.

Out of my friends and family who are over 60 none of us vote Conservative. Stereotypes are quite clunky aren't they.

In fact I only know a couple of people who will admit to voting Conservative and they certainly aren't over 60.

Well, I don't think it’s just that. 😗

They also supported the blood transfusion thing, the Windrush and the Horizon scandal.

They just support some campaigns. Most people do read newspapers, although many do it online.

wtf?

Im 60. I think fees and what happened to child benefits is appalling.

You must be far off retirement yourself if you think that was a clever moment...
Two years is not a lot to turn around your financial planning for retirement.

I started FT work in 1995 I can't remember when the first pension I qualified to get was and pensions were not mandatory for employers back then either but there is a whole lot of people who have/had no concept of pensions or any changes for decades. People can say it's my own fault, but then I had no clue about the difference between DC and DB pensions and had no clue my pension age had changed until after the millennium. There just wasn't the focus or awareness back then. I now find that I will most likely be working for 8 years longer than my mum (according to government gateway) and that makes me really annoyed.

We know that people don’t tell the truth about who they vote for.. I think I remember some research saying there are more secret Conservative votes than other parties.. make of that what you will…

Waspi women are those affected by the sudden change

I'm not surprised at all in a country which offers absolutely no form of financial education to its citizens. Why are we leaving school at 16/18 with no basic knowledge of tax, pensions, assets etc.?

Many of these women will have spent a lifetime in low-income jobs, the first generation to balance work and childcare responsibilities... is it really so difficult to believe that not all of them will have been in a position to plan meticulously for pension age, especially when the government moves the goalposts and then fails to communicate directly with those affected?

I’m not saying all 60 year olds stood by or agreed with it… but the vast majority of voting adults at the time did nothing about it…and it seems no one wants to do anything about it these issues.

Absolutely
Talk about poor financial understanding 😂

Not all of them

Agreed
It would have helped if younger people actually voted?
Christ let's blame the oldies seems to be the trope here

I disagreed with changes to child benefits. It seemed to be mainly mothers of young children who were not affected who supported the changes. I took part in the endless discussions on MN at the time.

If there is compensation paid, it will be paid to all the women concerned and will be between £1,000 and £3,000.

So nasty ‘bandwagon’ comments are not true.

So are you saying these women should've carried on working?

Well said. Just hateful.

Several years ago when Waspi started, I went to a local meeting and sat next to a woman in tears. She'd worked all her life as a cleaner and dinner lady: up early to clean offices, then into her local school to do lunches. Her husband had worked in a local factory. They had a council house. He was older than her and had retired at 65 and wasn't well. She retired shortly before her 60th birthday because she thought her state pension would kick in and they could spend more time together in his last few years. They were both astonished to find that the retirement age had risen to 65 for her.

They were struggling to survive on his state pension and £2.5k pa from his private pension. She'd had to go back to cleaning, but was struggling with arthritis and not sure she could keep going to 65. I talked to her about pension credits and other benefits. They had never claimed benefits in their lives — no idea of what might be available. Nice couple (he'd accompanied her to the venue on the bus and waited outside the meeting) who'd worked hard, raised their children, never had money to spare, lived in the same community all their lives and just didn't have much interest in the world at large. I can see very easily how it happened.

I genuinely don’t think many people under 50 read newspapers online or otherwise!

If you get to what you thought was pension age but a state pension is no longer available to you for a further 5 years or however long then surely you just continue working for that period?! You might be disgruntled but why would you just leave?!

Ah, yes. And then have young people complaining that they can't get a job because old people are hogging them, and the housing...

If you're lucky, LostBoys16, one day you will be old. I hope you remember your ageist posts and blush.

Haven’t RTWT. I am not in the WASPI group - I’ve known for a long time that my pension age is 67. It could go up to 68.

Just wanted to add my agreement to the PPs who have commented about government departments giving out the wrong information. This is certainly my experience, on a range of different matters.

DS gets PIP and used to get DLA. He boarded at a specialist school for a while and DWP incorrectly calculated the money he was owed every single bloody month. Every employee I spoke to at DWP insisted that all of their colleagues were wrong and they were correct. Then they turned out to be wrong too.

My dad went into a care home and my mum was told utter incorrect nonsense by DWP about the care allowances she could apply for. My mum never challenges ‘authority’ so they nearly missed out on a large monthly sum that it turned out my dad was eligible for.

Most recently, some genius on the HMRC helpline told DH that he owed them over £800 when in fact he didn’t owe a single penny.

So I can well believe that many WASPI women likely did consult DWP and were informed incorrectly.

@Alwaysdieting I don't think that is the case at all. Of course there will be an element of resentment to others having access to something you won't.

I'm at best frustrated. I was 7 years old in 1995 and 13 2011. I remember the news coverage. Can't for the life of me fathom how adults somehow missed the memo. It's frustrating that there's an element of financial ignorance here.

Both my Grandmother's continue working (born in 1940s) past 60 because they simply couldn't afford to live off state pensions.

There is a slightly entitled attitude of those born later who expected to not work past 60 with no intention of contributing towards their own retirement outside of NI (like most people have to). Especially when they have plenty of peers who didn't expect this and made adequate independent provision.

But you keep on with your dramatic statements. I'm sure it's served you well in life.

I was affected by the changes to child benefit… I lost out. But I supported the changes as I didn’t really need it!