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?

It's very unfair to say that WASPI women didn't read the letters when the government admits they didn't send letters to a large number of the women concerned (including me). I did happen to hear about the change a few years later, but it wasn't 'all over the news' when it was put in place.

Who told you retirement age was 60 then? Seems odd you didn’t know anything about current affairs but would assume it was 60 even though your DH would be retiring at 65.

Total crap. It was ALL OVER the news and TV and newspapers/magazines. Not only when it was announced, but repeatedly over the months and years afterwards. Unless you were living in a cave, it's hard to know how anyone wasn't aware of the changes.

This.

I am also 60, still working f/t and can't claim my SP for another 7 years. When I left school at 16 and started work, I understood I'd be retiring at 60 but due to health issues, I am not sure I have another 7 years of work left in me.

I've never received a letter about a change in gov policy.

When they changed child benefit so that you had to pay the "high-income charge" I did not receive a letter. When they increased student loans meaning that I would end up paying more than anticipated I did not receive a letter. When they scrapped childcare vouchers for people who changed employer, I did not receive a letter.

It is not fair to expect people with expected retirement ages of 68-70 (or possibly higher, or even not to qualify at all for a state pension) to pay compensation for people who had to retire at 61-66 because they "did not receive a letter", it was all over the news.

But what different choices do you think she realistically would have made if she had known?

I would absolutely support action to help those women who have been forced out of work due to caring responsibilities, including the many who have no option but to carry on caring well past the normal retirement age. I think this would be a much better and fairer use of taxpayers' money than providing compensation to waspi women who don't really need it.

Yes I agree they are not entitled to compensation on the basis that they had plenty of time to plan. I'm 65 and still working full time so I don't really see it as such a hardship anyway. Everyone has to work. I feel the same about young people who just don't feel like working - you have to expect to work, to contribute to the economy.
I don't agree on the basis that it's people who will work until 67 who have to pay for it though. I'm paying for them too until I'm 66 when NIC stops, and have paid in way beyond the 35 year cap. That really is just the way it goes. The WASPI women and the people who say they would be paying for it should stop feeling sorry for themselves and get on with it. There are bigger fish to fry.

I didn’t get a physical letter I don’t think, but it was all over the media, leaflets at the GP, hot topic at work etc etc. So I checked online myself 🤷‍♀️

Agree that many of my age chose to ignore newspapers and programs or adverts about this, it was very well discussed ,in all media for years. Only your fault if you choose to ignore stuff, then retire without checking your pension rights. Have not seen any evidence of waspi women having to live in cars. Many also chose to depend on a man, who then let them down. If I get a payment, I will pass it on to next generation, who are definitely more in need of it.
Think nhs or army are more in need of scarce funds.

I'm a WASPI woman born in 1958 and I got my pension at 66. Most women of my age didn't give up work when they got pregnant. There were nurseries and childminders so giving up work to be a SAHP was a choice. The Labour Government that was elected in 1997 brought in Child Tax Credits which helped working parents. Young women today will probably need to wait until they are at least 70 for their pensions, most of them will have student loans to pay back and getting on the housing ladder is almost impossible unless they have help from their parents. In lots of ways, they have it much worse than we did.

Hallelujah! This is exactly what I was going to say, go into the Government Gateway website!!

Hallelujah! This is exactly what I was going to say, go into the Government Gateway website!!

Exactly. Compensation for the waspi women isn't the issue here. If the lady in question is vulnerable due to learning difficulties, childhood trauma, domestic abuse or other factors which have left her living in poverty in her later life, then the state should absolutely step in to provide the support that she needs. The changes to the state pension sound like the least of her problems.

I dont think they should be 'compensated'. I knew about these changes but they didnt affect me. How people can claim they have to live in cars because of this.

I am well into my 60's and still working. The pension age has changed during my working lifetime a few times. You quite honestly need to take personal responsibility rather than in many cases pretending you didnt get the letter or got it and didnt understand it so it ended up in a drawer. Claiming that women worked full time from 15/16. Really? So no time off for children, no working part time - just solid working? Sorry but that generation didnt always have careers or work full time.

@twistyizzy what do you think should have happened in your MIL's case? From what you're saying, she isn't able to access any way of getting updates or new information on anything, apart from through her DH. So what could have been done for her? Other than keep things exactly as they were forever.

I agree with the government that the £10b absolutely cannot be justified. Most women these days can only dream of retiring at 65, in reality they may not get a state pension at all. That's because there is no money. So there is certainly no money to pay compensation for those who did get to retire at 65 but are angry the goalposts moved.

Yes, no one is written to when they start their first job and told "this is when you'll retire". No one thinks that's the gov's job.

I didn’t. Didn’t live in UK but got letters regularly as I paid UK tax and continued to pay my NI contributions. Obviously I read all my mail or the UK Govt wouldn’t have received my tax payments so saying women didn’t read letters is insulting.

I only found out because another ex Pat mentioned it in a conversation.

@Sahara123 I genuinely worry about how much spoon feeding some people expect from their government.

First post
Spot on !

👏👏👏

@Perseimmion When I got pregnant, along with most women of my era, I gave up work. Back then we didn’t have nurseries, so most women became SAHP. I supported my DH, whilst he progressed his career. I gave up my career.

The percentage of women in work in the early 70s was 53% which only rose to 67% in 2013. Hardly the stats of a generation forced out of work.
Seems like many posters here have a very tinted memory!

It really was everywhere. On billboards, in national newspapers, on tv and radio, it was in my mum's Women's Weekly. I was working in a small company and even their payroll clerk sent us all a brochure. We got brochures from the council too.

But if you choose to live abroad for a while (as I did too for many years) surely the onus is on you to stay up to date with any changes?

Well presumably you only heard the retirement age was 60 because it was mentioned in conversation too and that didn’t seem to have bothered you?

I agree. Loads of things affect people without them being personally told.

And I've never been officially informed of my pension age, so wouldn't expect them to write to me if it changed.