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.

because they were part of Corbyn's shadow cabinet and were repeating the party line at the time. Thats how politics works.

You can claim its hypocritical sure, but the country didn't vote for that manifesto and Labour policies are different now than they were in 2019.

Are you going to complain we don't all have free wifi now as well? Because they said we would in 2019.

Are you going to complain we don't all have free wifi now as well? Because they said we would in 2019.

I couldn't give two hoots Corbyn lost so comprehensively. Tf

So no 'injustice' just parrot some lines, good to know Labour mean it when they utter it

Not true.

That your experience now. But in the 1990s, pensions hadn’t changed in their lifetime, there wasn’t any need to check.

I meant shame for them. Perhaps if more voted for Labour in 2019 they would have received money.

@Waytooearlytogetup , everything you say is accurate now, but you may be overlooking the inheritance prospects. Our DC, fortunate ones, will inherit well when we die. A nice 4-bedroom house, any money unspent, and the remains of the pension pot we have nurtured for 35 years. It's quite a significant windfall. We earned and saved it and we will do our best to ensure it goes down to our DC and not to the government, who will fritter it away on yet another half-wit initiative that only funds the unproductive element of the civil service.

@Drfosters 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?

Your Mum is right, it was well known. I don't believe all the people who said they had no idea. I think as soon as they knew there might be compensation on the horizon a lot of people conveniently forgot they'd known about it.

And check where? On a non existent web page using your non smart mobile?

People talked all the time about women's pension age increasing to the same age as men's. It was obviously going to happen.

Rubbish.
https://pensionaccess.co.uk/the-pension-timeline/

Yes, it was very well known.

Before the internet information was widely disseminated:

• in libraries
• in citizens advice bureaus
• in employer leaflets on pensions
• in the newspapers
• in the radio & telly news broadcasts

Are there any old screenshots of these adverts? Just asking as ive seen plenty of screenshots of vintage Christmas adverts from old magazines so there should be some of this too right?

I disagree that everyone knew it was going to happen, although I did. But although I was born in 1956, I went to university (free) and prospered during my working life. There were many more women of around my age who didn't understand the statements issued. I do feel sympathy for them having the rules changed quite abruptly.

It’s not the sort of thing people are interested in for Pinterest.
You could go to your county archives.

Thirty years ago I was 37, there was no internet or social media. I was up to my ears with a baby and toddler, was working and I doubt I read a newspaper or watched TV news for years.
So call me stupid if you like but it passed me by.

Having said all that I still think it's unaffordable for the country to pay it. I do resent the glee shown by many on MN against fellow women.

Most people watched the TV after their children were in bed. Did you never watch the news on the television?

Just in case any politicians or civil servants are reading this, PLEASE could we have a cross party commitment to not rip up pensions legislation with every budget. At almost 70, I don't have the luxury of years more work to repair the huge hole that Rachel Reeves tore through the pension plan I have been working on since the early 1990s. I thought I had made sensible plans, under the rules, according to every single word of pension legislation since 2001. But it appears they can be re-written to take 40% of everything.

Whilst I don’t feel that compensation should be paid I do accept that some people probably didn’t know, or understand, about the changes.

I used to work for the DWP and I thought I was fairly clued up when I took early retirement with 39 qualifying years for my pension. I read about the changes in 2016 regarding pension age. I also saw that 35 qualifying years were needed for a full pension, so thought I’d be fine.

It was years later that I found out that my 39 years don’t all count, and I am no longer entitled to a full pension. I could probably pay to bring it up to the full amount but don’t plan to yet as the goal posts have been moved so many times I don’t know if it’s worth it.

That said, it is what it is and although I feel that I have missed out, I don’t think it’s up to anyone to compensate me.

Oh come on. By picking up the phone and phoning the department of work and pensions to ask. Like they will have rung their workplace pension provider to double check what they would be getting.

And at no time between the age of 37 and when you decided to retire did you think to check the situation with the state pension you were relying on? That's gobsmacking.

This is far more of an injustice. Six months warning that pensions will be subject to IHT compared to 15yrs warning you will need to work to the same pension age as men.

Absolutely the right decision. As a younger middle aged woman I find the special pleasing of a relatively small cohort of ignorant women very embarrassing.

At least IHT only applies to what you leave behind when you’re dead and don’t need money any more.

They aren't going to take money from you.