AIBU in thinking the government have made the correct decision not to blanket pay all WASPI women £3k? This goes against the Ombudsman recommendations to pay between £1k-3k to every WASPI women.

[caringcarer]

At the time it was in every newspaper for weeks, in the radio and on the TV news a lot of coverage via the media. Most women of this age agree they knew about pension age changes. At the time it was huge. I fail to understand how any women could not have known unless they lived off grid. No individual letters were sent out to the women who would be affected. The Ombudsman's recommendation was that a blanket payment of between £1k-3k be paid to all WASPI women. Labour have just announced no money will be paid out at all. It would have cost the taxpayer up to £10.5 billion pounds on top of the huge amount of my ney it has cost to review it for several years. It is money that the government just don't have. Assuming lessons have been learned and any future changes will see DWP send out letters to any individuals who it will directly affect. The only worry is that it sets a precedent of ignoring what the Ombudsman's recommendations.

that was under jeremy corbyn's leadership and was in their 2019 manifesto

funnily enough a very large percentage of WASPI women decided to vote for Boris Johnson's government instead....

I think they did too.

Yes. Shame they didn't vote for Labour then.

Tbf £50m is absolutely nothing compared to the £10.5b this compensation is quoted as costing. Less than 0.5% of it if I've got the 0s right.

I thought the railways were privatised? Why is the government paying off drivers? Genuine question

No doubt millions of the women will have turned down very lucrative career-change opportunities in their 50s, as they knew they’d be getting their state pension cheque soon (without checking when). 🤣

i am really struggling to believe that the Daily Telegraph did absolutely zero reporting on this. Maybe they didn’t but genuinely I would be shocked that they didn’t cover this at all.

I just find it odd that some women like my mum said the adverts were everywhere and everyone was talking about it and some people say they had no idea. Seems such a strange divergence. Is it due to education or area of the country for instance?

I think some people kid themselves that because they didn't receive a specific individualised letter then it's ok to claim they weren't informed. Which isn't the same as not knowing.

I feel similar about the whole PPI bandwagon to be honest. Plenty of people put claims in for thousands of that. Plenty of those people knew full well what they'd signed up to, but because it was relatively easy to claim that they didn't know what they were agreeing to they deserved some compensation.

Perhaps you should have been reading a different newspaper then. It was heavily reported elsewhere.

I agree with the decision not to pay, YANBU
Group of women, many of whom will have paid reduced rate NI, trying to grab money based on their choice to allegedly remain ignorant. There was tons of publicity.

Don't worry, dearie. No-one will be asking you for extra tax to compensate these women now.

I think it’s the right decision. We all have a responsibility to inform ourselves through life of any government changes that affect important things like pension age. Ignorance is no excuse to claim compensation.

Otherwise what’s next? Compensation for those who had no idea you needed ID to vote and were turned away? Compensation paid by airlines for anyone who didnt look up the postBrexit passport rules and lost out on their £5k holiday? Compensation for anyone who has no idea that a paper tax self assessment isn’t going to posted to them and not receiving one means do it online not oh you can skip paying taxes this year…

The whole waspi argument infantilises women imho.

Sorry, no. She didn't plan. Making a plan involves doing research into the current situation. Not assuming that something is a certain way because it's been that way historically, that is frankly ridiculous and not something your average grown adult would do about something so important. That woman is complaining about the fact that HR was next door but never told her. But did she seek them out? Did she specifically put in a request for information over what she was entitled to when, or even go in to see them to double check when she would get her state pension and how much it would be, when she sought out the details of the early retirement package for her workplace pension?

Knowing that as she was retiring so early, only mid 50s, that it would mean a reduced workplace pension, it then becomes imperative that you know exactly what you'll be getting state wise to supplement that. That's why you do a spreadsheet, or seek proper advice, because your workplace and your state pension has to last you many years and you HAVE to get it right.

I just can't fathom the lack of detailed planning in a grown adult.

@TheHateIsNotGood

Tbf, all the evidence suggests that people are less likely to be demented if they keep active, challenge their brain and stay social and that working might be part of that.

Retiring early and then doing less brain activity might be quite bad for the population, as well as expensive, so those 5 extra years may have lengthened some people's active years, even though fewer of those years will be as a retired person ...

Yes & many will be trying it on to get a bit of extra cash.

Sunak also had 4 months to say one way or another what he'd do but fudged the issue.

Looks to me like he ran scared, called a GE, rather than deal with the issues he & the Tories caused

It should have nothing to do with " can't afford it"- we don't say that to the victims of the PO or the blood scandals

Whether you think they should get compensation or not, it is incomparable to the infected blood victims.

Sunak also had 4 months to say one way or another what he'd do but fudged the issue.

Yes, I think it's fairly obvious no government was going to pay this, and Sunak just didn't want to fully admit to that right before an election.

Some did though. Labour with strong statements about injustice

Starmer said similar. Maybe an interviewer will ask if they still think it's an injustice

Angela Rayner promising to 'right that injustice' - 'we will compensate them for the money that they've lost - this is their money that they've had stolen off them and it's completely unacceptable and any government, any government, should act responsibly to these women'.

Shame they didn't win the election in 2019 then.

@lemonstolemonade and I do so agree - and up to recent years many older retirees, often women, would keep active by volunteering within their community.

Not sure that working a till, cleaning, caring for a job just to pay the bills produces the same endorphins and no other negative effects produces the sense of well-being you're describing.

Tbh my view is that generations of women - past, present and future have been sold a lemon/pup/lie - we still don't have true equality no matter how much you 'dress' it up.

Far too many MNers post about how both they and their DPs work FT, usually with DC, and yet the MNer does the 'lion's share' of traditional 'wife' work.

Not much has changed really, despite the 'rights'.

Shame they didn't win the election in 2019 then.

Why did you want it paid?

@EasternStandard I think it was clear from Labour's manifesto this year that this wasn't going to be paid. There was no mention of it in the manifesto and when asked about it specifically, Reeves said "I haven't set out any money for this". I don't think it's surprising that Labour this year under Starmer have pretty different policies to Corbyn in 2019 - generally speaking that's a good thing.

The Tories also didn't say they'd pay it.

The Lib Dems and the Greens did but they can say anything - they won't end up in a position of having to do it.

The quotes are from Rayner and Starmer

They both went in pretty strong on this is an injustice line

I wonder if asked they'd say yes or no over injustice now

It's far easier to make such statements when you don't actually have to find the money

The first change was, the second wasn’t. Most oeople who weren’t directly affected were only dimly aware there were two changes