AIBU to think that WASPI women should not be entitled to compensation?

[mugglewump]

They've been on the news again marching for compensation in a climate where the government is having to make very difficult decisions about funding to stop our debt ever increasing.

I think there are far more deserving cases for goverment money than women who didn't act on information at the time and sort their pensions out or keep working (p/t or f/t) until retirement age.

Moreover, the people paying this compensation are those who will be working until they are 67 to 70 to claim a state pension. Surely, it's a bit ick to expect them to bail out women who retired at 60?

Fgs this is her experience, not mine.
Do what you want with it

Yes the "WASPI" women irritate me too.Mum was well aware of the situation at the time .I think a lot of older women seem to be very entitled . The reason apparently that older women retired at 60 ,was because their husbands tended to be older, and it was felt that they couldnt manage without wifey at home the poor lambs! surely the waspi lot had a good crack at equality and gaining a decent personal pension? they seem to want it both ways .Some of say 70 plus compared to someone in late 50s, who will have to wait longer doesnt seem to warrent the older girl getting a chunk of tax free cash on top of earlier retirement

I would normally agree with you but while we are giving billions away in foreign aid to gay polar bears in the Sahara, I have zero interest in what ANY government has to say in response.

That goes for Ukraine too. It is not our business. The US has a vested interest despite what Trump states. They need to pay the bill.

It is very simple to fix this nation. Remove ourselves from the ECOH, deport all asylum seeking young men who nothing more than economic migrants, learn to mind our own business like Switzerland.

I didn't have any experience of my class mates leaving school at 13. It wasn't allowed and the welfare officer/ truant officer would be after them.
Don't assume that because I don't know your MIL personally, I have 'no experience' of those times or the location.

Yes they did I was widely available.

I don't think they are in favour of inequality for women, I think that's a total side issue. They were not told that they would lose pension rights and the ombudsman has agreed with them and said they should be compensated. This is just as much a women's rights issue as any other (NB I'm not a Waspi either).

The truant officer may have been after them I have no idea but ultimately thats what she did so 🤷‍♀️ I see no reason why she would lie to us about it. Maybe I will tell her random strangers on the Internet are calling her a liar though 🙄

Employers would not allow 13 year olds who should be in school to work in a mill. This was the 1970s not the 1870s.

There also weren't many mills in the NE- mines yes, mills no.

Uh huh. And black or gay people should be able to retire at 60 too then? Since it's all about historical discrimination

Sorry I've just checked with her and it was a factory not a mill and yes she started working 1 month prior to her 14th birthday. Again, not sure what she has to gain from lying about it but hey I'm sure you know her life experience better than she does

'If you move abroad like I did in my 40’s then you often don’t hear about pension changes and the Dept. concerned are not easy to communicate with.

I’m several years short of a full pension because I moved abroad and trying to find out how to pay to top up my contributions is extremely infuriating as I can’t seem to get any definitive answers from anyone. They make it as hard as possible to find out information.'

@fuckityfux really? Because you can just log onto the government gateway online with your NI and passport numbers and it will tell you exactly how many years of contributions you have, how many years you can top up, and how much you would need to top up for each of those years. It's ridiculously simple.

And call me crazy but I would never assume that I would just be notified by something so important as my future financial security and pension by "the government" and would take active steps to keep updated on policy changes.

This is so refreshing to read.
I don’t think the WASPI women should be compensated either for the reasons you mentioned, and I can’t believe it’s getting so much repeat airtime.

People describe a world of information in the 90s as it it was the 40s. It was the norm for everyone to have a TV. I think I know more people now who don't have a TV than I did the 90s.

But the name of their group is "women against state pension inequality". Which is the opposite of what they actually think, and it must irk men who had to work to 65 (or older) to retire, not to mention younger people. If they just had a sensible name, I'd not agree with them, but I would not get quite so irritated either.

You called her up in the last 3 minutes to check whether or not it was a mill she worked in at 13? 😂

Well why should me working longer pay towards free childcare for younger women? We older women did not get that and when I enquired decades ago about a small private pension - no company pensions for many at that time - I was told that was not possible as a married woman. Incorrect information? Why would I question a ‘financial expert’?
How much is the free childcare costing taxpayers?

She has reading age of approx 9 years old and takes no interest in any current affairs.

Sorry, I'm not sure what you're suggesting should have happened then? You said she left everything to her husband and wouldn't have even opened a letter about pensions.

So what's your complaint? That she wasn't written to (I assume you don't know whether she was because she presumably doesn't know?) Or is it that changes were made at all? You can't say nothing can change because some people can't/wont engage with information about it.

You can't lump all the Waspi women together. Even the Ombudsman's report said this. It only recommended a payment to all of them because it would be impossible to identify the ones who should really be getting it, based on what they knew at the time, whether their enquiries about their pensions were answered properly and correctly, and whether they took financial decisions based on what was fundamentally wrong information which led to them suffering a loss. If you read the Ombudsman's report it's clear that there were a lot of women who knew that something was changing, but weren't clear how it would affect them, and their attempts to find out were not dealt with properly.

There is however a a subset of the Waspi women who have been very clearly disadvantaged. This isn't about whether the they were informed about the rule change. It's because they were hit by a second unexpected rule change at a time in their working lives when there was no time left for them to make up any pension shortfall. I believe this subset should most definitely be compensated.

I don't think that the campaign strategy of lumping everyone together has done anyone any favours but practically, I can understand why they did it.

This. I think they are jolly cheeky when subsequent men and women may not even receive a pension at all but will still be funding theirs.
It was very well publicised. People need to take some degree of responsibility for their own finances.

Legal school leaving age was raised to 15 in 1947. Your MIL if a waspi would not have left school at 13. Not being MC does not mean she was incapable of reading a letter. By then she would have been in her 40s. Not reading a letter was her choice.

If she wouldn't even have opened a letter, sent to inform her of changes she wouldn't have acted on anyway, why is it ok that I as a 60yo now have to work to 67, picking up the bill for her compensation because she couldn't be bothered to open an envelope 30 years ago?

I actually did because I/she was accused of making it up and I did doubt it after being told I was wrong. Always good to check your source!

Exactly.

This constant infantilising of women is so ridiculous. I wish I could just say that I had no interest in current affairs and just refuse to open my letters and magically assume that absolutely no policy changes will happen for the next 30 years that may impact me in old age.

Because you could afford to live off 1 salary, unlike younger women who have no choice.

My Mum is in the age range. There's 5 years between her and my Dad and they always expected to be able to retire together. As it was, my Dad worked an extra year as he was in the cohort that could still retire at 65, and retired at 66 and my mum then retired at 66 also, so 5 years later.

They were a bit aggrieved at their plan to retire together having fallen through, but at no point did my Mum expect to be compensated for the government applying equality to women. She knew that the retirement age had been pushed back, so continued on working accordingly. She had 5 more years of money paid into her workplace pension as a result.

They don't own their own property, so it's given them 5 less years of stressing over paying the rent out of their pensions.

I don't think it's your MILs life experience that's been called into question.