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.

I'm a WASPI, born 1954 and received by pension three years ago at age 66, after working for 51 years.

I knew the age was rising to 65 as it was all over the media, in magazine/newspaper articles for many years - even though I only received official notification of this quite late in the day, can't remember exact date. What really pissed me off was the Coalition increasing it to aged 66!

when my children were young, late 80’s I had a series of crappy part time jobs to fit around childcare. I spoke to a financial advisor about starting a small private pension and was informed it was ILLEGAL for me, as a married woman, to do so.

He was talking rubbish - I was a married woman in the 80s and had a private pension as did everyone I know.

Where exactly are some of you getting your absolute bullshit supposed facts from?

I was born in 1954 and I can assure you that me and DH could NOT buy a family sized house on a single salary and neither could my friends or siblings.

Me and DH bought a house in 1981 and we had to move 40 miles from where we were living and working to afford a small 2 bed starter home. We both had pretty well paid jobs but could not get a mortgage to cover the price even with a 20% deposit. We had to borrow money from family.

Also absolute bullshit that the WASPI generation didn't need to work. All the women I knew or know apart from one had to work when they had children. Most worked evenings so they could be at home during the day.

I'd like to know who all these well off women are. We couldn't afford holidays for years after getting married and buying a house even though our wedding only cost £200 unlike the thousands and thousands so many spend now on a wedding.

When the mortgage rate went up and up and up we had to eat beans on toast for almost every main meal

As a genuine question and as you said your mother was financially astute, given that the legislation to increase women's pension age was passed in 1995 and it didn't take full effect until 2018 (ie 23 years later) how did she not know that she wouldn't get her pension at 60?

^ the lady on radio 4 specifically addressed this during the news. She said that at the time this was passed it was decided that in pension forecast letters they were not going to routinely note the age change nor did they want to pay for a mass marketing campaign.

It's a bit like the changes to the Highway Code in 2022 that mean a pedestrian can cross and make a car wait if turning right. The law changed but they haven't paid to publicise it so many people shout at me it's their right of way but it isn't! People have to be made aware, actively.

With respect she was not financially astute at all, the information was on the news and readily available.

I was 57 in 2011, not nearly enough time to do much to mitigate the changes. I started full time work at 15 years old and paid adult contributions from my wages. I do wonder where the idea that we were doing better than today's young adults comes from. When I married and bought a home the mortgage repayment was the whole of my salary, my husband wasn't earning a big wage, we shared a battered old car, no holidays, we couldn't even afford carpets the first year. There was no worry about affording childcare because there wasn't any to be had for love nor money where we lived so I had to drastically reduce my working hours to care for our children. So no spare money for extra private pension payments. By the time I hit 50 I had left the country 5 times. Life was very different back then, we didn't have many choices at all. The pension changes have cost me an astronomical amount of money, without any chance to do anything about it

I don’t understand this need to go “my life is difficult too!!”

yeah, it is. We accept that. But add mouths to feed, what it can do to your body, maternity discrimination, the impact on your earnings, the time off that you inevitably need when the kid inevitably gets sick, etc etc
mothers have the same difficulties that childfree women can have (illness, difficult family relationships, money worries, interpersonal problems at work, with friends, partners, neighbours etc, caring responsibilities re elderly parents, and more) plus the children.

@mydogisthebest From observing the lives of our parents, our school friends, relatives etc etc.

And these were not well off people. All our fathers worked in pits, factories, steelworks etc. And our DMs were mostly SAHMs for decades. I had one friend in my class at school who's DM worked full time. A few did a bit of cleaning a couple of evenings a week or a couple of mornings in a shop or similar. All owned their own homes.

Well I think universal credit and all free childcare and support for working parents should be removed.
After why didn't those with children they can't support get on with the choices they made.
Don't like that line of arguing? It's judging the past by the standards of the current day just of most posters here are doing.

Someone said most women are relatively well at 60. They weren't in the 50s and 60s. My mother struggled to raise 2 children as a widow on a paltry pension, two part time jobs, whatever fitted with casual work, no breakfast or after school, no free childcare, no childcare at all, slaving without a phone, without a washing machine, growing what foods he could and making everyone's clothes. She died aged 62, worn out. That's life in the 1950s, 60s,70s, you people live in luxury whining about buying a house. Vomit inducing.

I started paying NI contributions in around 89ish, might have been earlier actually

I was not aware of the changes when they were brought in and only became aware of these later

My beef with not being personally informed is that when I started work and paying into the scheme, that was based on a particular agreement, ie I pay X for X number of years and I get X when I retire at X age

If that contract between me and government changed, I should have been personally notified of it. The biggest things to change such as the age and the number of years to pay in is a significant change to that contract.

I didnt see it on the news and Im not a newspaper reader as such I became aware of it by seeing that there were campaigns etc much much later.

I also keep seeing reference that this affects women born in the 50s, I was born in the 70s.

@mydogisthebest By contrast, the description perfectly meets my parents' situation. They bought a family home on one salary, my mum was a SAHM for most of my childhood then worked full time for about 10 years and retired at 55. My dad worked full time for just over 30 years, then retired at 56. They lived on the proceeds of the sale of said family home until they reached SP age.

My parents' friends were all in similar situations.

I do not know a single person amongst my friends, colleagues or other acquaintances for whom the same can be said.

I know not all of the boomer generation is wealthy and had access to that lifestyle, but some absolutely did.

No, I don't actually because my mental health is bad enough without reading all the awful stories in the news.

The second change should not have been rushed in and women born in a couple of years of the 50's suffered much more than others.

I should have received a letter about the second change but I didn't but even if I had it would still be totally unfair. What was I meant to do to make things any easier/better?

What I have been surprised about is the number of these women who seem to be planning for their retirement with the state pension as their only source of income. Regardless of the changes and timetables etc that seems like a poor idea. There was a woman on Radio 4 this morning who seemed to have not ever considered saving or having a private pensions and was just relying on accessing the state pension at the age of 60 - what a gamble!

It's a bit like the changes to the Highway Code in 2022 that mean a pedestrian can cross and make a car wait if turning right. The law changed but they haven't paid to publicise it so many people shout at me it's their right of way but it isn't! People have to be made aware, actively

Er, that was everywhere when it was introduced. And the Highway Code is freely available online. What do you want them to do? Take away people's driving licences until they have re-read the Highway Code?

SOME may have done but I am sure many more did not.

Not sure what jobs they had to afford a house on one salary or where all these cheap houses were!

Plenty did. My cousin got a redundancy package and her final salary company pension at 52 and has lived very comfortably for the last few years. She's now 70. She's just whatsapped me about how excited she is about her payout....

I doubt we'll get ANY compensation - same old, same old......."it's only women."

A pox on self-serving politicians (yes, Nick Clegg, I mean you as well. Agreeing to ANYTHING your masters David Cameron and George Osborne said because they let you sit at The Big Boys Table.)

Well, yes. Had the comment said "life is hard for young women now too - harder once they have children", I wouldn't have said anything.

It said that life is hard for young women once they have children. Which is the opposite to accepting that everyone's life is difficult. Hence why I commented.

My dad was a factory worker and they bought in a nice area within a cheaper part of the country.

I'm born in 1959 and it affects me (I think)!.

I got my letter in the 1990s and still have it.

I left school at 16 and started work. There were no work pensions then and private pensions were just not heard of.

By the time private pensions started to be a thing I was actually told by an advisor that in order for me to receive anything like a reasonable pension I would have to pay in a fortune every month.

By the time I was in my 50's I could only work part time because of various health problems although not entitled to any benefits so could not afford to save any money. I worked part time until I got my state pension.

My partner and I are on £130K combined income and we STILL can’t buy a house. We have no debts at all. I worked through my degree and didn’t have a loan. DP has paid his off because he was a higher earner so was getting something like £800 off his paycheck towards it a month. We have one battered old car paid in full, so old ISOFIX wasn’t an option, I work from home to save time (to do chores instead of commuting) and money, we treat ourselves to one cheap takeaway a month, had 3 days on a UK city break and 4 days at a center parcs for holidays in the last 2 years. I have 2 coats, one is 5 years old and the other is second hand 3 years old. My wages alone (I’m on £43K) wouldn’t cover a hypothetical mortgage on a small 3 bed terrace (3rd bedroom being a box room) in zone 5/6, we would still need about £500/month to top up. We have both compressed our hours to reduce our nursery bill, so DD only has to go to nursery 3 days. We spend £3k+ A MONTH on rent (bills excluded) and nursery ALONE.

so, yeah, my generation has it way better.

I am really annoyed by this, it's a horrible grabby attitude with no thought to the implacations to others due the amount of compensation being paid out.
The information was out there ignorance is not a defence. Yes it was accelerated but the "no time to doing anything about it" argument is ridiculous you work longer that the solution. WASPI's were still able to retire younger than the current female workforce.

Does anyone know what the estimated retirement age will be for someone in their early 40s?

I'm thinking it's unlikely to stay as 68?

If you moved out of London you could, obviously, get a much cheaper house.

You also chose to have a child instead of waiting and saving.

But ever-changing government budgets are not remotely like a private contract. Whilst I'm no fan of this (or any) government, nobody complains when personal tax-free allowances rise (yes, I know: inflation), the income tax or VAT rate is reduced or other beneficial financial schemes are brought in with relatively little notice.

Pensions are treated by the government as a benefit. Younger people relying on all kinds of benefits have the goalposts moved all the time, especially as different governments come and go.

You can either take the responsibility to make sure you know (and are claiming) all that you are entitled to - and do this regularly, to keep up to date with all changes - or you can just ignore it, assume that nothing can ever change and then potentially be in big trouble if it does and you only discover at the last minute.

Why wouldn't your personal financial wellbeing be important enough to you to spend a little time every now and then to make sure that you understand it - or speak to somebody who can advise you - so that you can make any plans or preparations for when it (inevitably) changes in some way?