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.

Work how?

No funded nurseries back then. No maternity pay. No jobs even held open till the 80s
So what did they do with the children?

What is a jummy mummy?

What letters?

There wasn't proper notification of the pension age rising past 65

Women have always worked. Only middle class women didn't, and no, tbh, I don't think a few years caring for preschoolers is a lifetime of work.

You can't expect everyone to live the same life and want to research and watch the news. These days financial services have to be crystal clear and watch out for vulnerable customers, those who don't have the financial knowledge or understanding would come under this. Why shouldn't the government be held to the same standard.

Young people need to sit up and take notice. I predict within the next 10 years the state pension will start to be removed/reduced altogether.

Those working in reasonably paid jobs especially need to take note, you'll have spent your whole life funding others and putting up with crap services/stuff being taken away only to find that your retirement will look similar to someone who never bothered to work. In fact there are quite a few pensioners now who are better off than others due to the uplift of pension credit.

Wrong decision imo, a process wasn't followed, the women weren't written to. I suspect some hapless civil servant thought it wasn't worth bothering as it only affected women.

Which is the whole crux of the matter. Not the rise the fact the government forgot at the end of this was a woman who need to be told and perhaps have it explained and they weren't all financially savvy.

The recommendation from the Ombudsman is purely about if these women knew about the age rise not if they were happy with it or took action to mitigate, just about being told it was changing.

No memo was sent

I think it was the right decision. My mum is a waspi and is incredulous some others didn’t know what was going on. Giving them £10 billion while working families can’t afford to buy a tiny flat would be outrageous

For me, it's the age from 64/66 increase, if I recall, it was sneaked in. I am not bothered about the compensation but the fact that my state pension - which I have made over 40 years contributions - was delayed due to a 'lack of funds'. I should have done what my extended family are doing, live off state benefits and still get a pension at 66/67/68.

I agree with the decision. I asked my mum who is in the age group and she said she knew all about it. She said there was tonnes of publicity and they gave her 20 years to prepare. She honestly had no idea how anyone could have missed it. She prepared accordingly. I feel for these ladies but if plenty of women understood I am not sure what else the government of the time could have done.

What about all the men who got a pension at 65 instead of 60?

Well I didn’t get a letter saying mine was now 67 not 65…. Am I also entitled to compensation? Or, like any adult, did I do the right thing by keeping myself informed. Or is the argument that, as we are only women and can’t be expected to trouble our selves with complicated things like pensions, we need to be spoon fed. If taking away WFA and reducing private sector pay rises and increasing utility bills and mortgages is acceptable, I don’t see why this is any different.

Does she lack imagination to think others may live more chaotic lives than hers or may have had other things to focus on. Without a direct call to action they may not have realised they were being targeted with ads and announcements in papers.

It's not because it's women. I'd expect any change in the pension age of Men to be communicated too

Oh right so because lots of women understood screw the ones that didn't and needed it explained better?

But that isn’t the government’s responsibility. They need to inform which they did and There was a lot of press at the time. People do need to take responsibility to watch the news/ read the papers etc. plenty of people have busy lives but understood.

It really doesn’t work both ways. Everyone knew women would retire at 60 and men at 65, that’s just how it always was.

I thought that was weird, till I reached 60 and my postmenopausal body was really suffering from spending all day at a computer. Luckily I was able to go part-time.

What would've worked for them?
If their lives were thar chaotic many would've binned the letter.

I am in my 50s and remember clearly when the increase in pension age from 60 to 65 was announced. I was 29 and also had the 'poor you!' comments from older colleagues. The WASPI women could only have been in their 40s when it was announced. How did some of them not know?

The problem is that was 20 years ago. Those economics aren't relevant now.

Demographically, currently where the money is needed most is for younger generations. The group now entering retirement is the richest generation to have ever lived. Obviously not true for everyone of them, but statistically proven for the demographic group).

By contrast, the younger generations coming behind them are increasingly falling further and further behind in prosperity as a result of public policies that were voted for by their parents to their advantage but their children's detriment.

In the current state of the country's finances it would be wholly immoral to have provided a blanket compensation to a group many of whom DID know and everyone of which SHOULD have known if they'd been properly planning their retirement. My mother was a working class factory worker and absolutely did know, as did all of her colleagues, it was widely discussed amongst them according to her. She took steps to plan around it and was well prepared, but under the Ombudsman's proposal would still have been entitled to compensation.

Quite.

They have lots of money they spend, It is taxpayers money, not theirs!

A line has to be drawn somewhere.