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?

I’m late Gen X and figured out quite early on that the type of pension available to my WASPI mother would probably not be available to me, and I was going to have to put money away even before auto-enrolment. I also got my first job when I was 16 which was before the legislated increase in SPA for women. It has long been clear that I would not receive SP until at least 65. Turns out it will be 67. No one has sent me a letter. Do I get compensation??

My mum cannot understand how her peers were not aware, the info was everywhere as others have said.

OP, and others - just wait until you are on the wrong side of a judgement that the Gvt behaved wrongly but don't get compensation.

Yes times are very hard - but turning on other small fish in a shrinking pond is not the answer - those who are keeping the river from replenishing the pond are the problem. Massive corporations not paying tax, land banking and making huge profits, energy companies profiteering etc etc.

"sort out their pensions"?

WASPI women include those who started their careers before the equal pay and sex discrimination acts came into play The majority of their career (including after the postponed pension announcement) was before employers' pension contribution was compulsory. The gender pay gap was bigger than it is now - women were even more likely to be in low paid jobs unable to save hard. Single mothers...so many barriers to "sorting out" a decent pension. And including the big Endowment Mortgage collapse. As was normal, I bought my flat on an endowment - with great projections as to how it would fund my retirement. I was at least lucky that my policy did pay off my mortgage many years later (because I had switched to repayment) but many were left with a big gap and a mortgage still to pay once the policy matured, and certainly no pension!

The Gvt were found wanting - by their own watchdog.

Are other compensation schemes to be cancelled if someone decides the wronged parties can afford not to be compensated?

I’ve actually posted facts.

I think they are fighting the wrong fight, and have picked some very bad examples to go to the media with. I remember reading about a woman that retired in her late forties and complained about being affected!

I have a lot more sympathy for this lady: https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/pensions-and-retirement/disabled-pensions-cant-afford-family-visit-3023926 . I think it would have been better to fight for more generous pension credits.

Excellent post. 👏

In a world that is moving increasingly towards the right nothing will fuel that rhetoric more than appearing to not look after one’s own citizens whilst the perception that new arrivals getting everything.

It’s a win for reform

Disagreeing with a view of a situation is not the same thing as gaslighting.

Nobody that isn't a WASPI is going to think that they should get compensation, because if they aren't getting it, why should the WASPI's?

You should be asking a different question - how is it okay that the Government can take money off people for decades, on the promise of a pension at 60, and then change the goalposts? No other contract would allow it.

My DH's mum died at 61 and mine at 73. Not much time to draw a pension is it? Let's say you lived till 75. How is it okay to pay in to a scheme for 51 years, and then only get paid out for 8? It's an absolute travesty and we should ALL be up in arms.

I'm a waspi woman and I knew about the change. People are always looking for someone else to blame.

You've posted:

• that women should support other women - not a fact
• about your personal experience of inequality back in the day - nobody on this thread has said that your personal experience is untrue
• that young women need to be grateful for having equality - again, not a fact
• that young women's attitude towards older women is disgusting - again, not a fact

So, no, it isn't gaslighting for the rest of us to disagree with you that women MUST support you just 'cos we're women, or that young women need an attitude readjustment.

Some of these women have been living on scraps while their full entitlement was withheld.

Your philosophy is a fraudster's charter. If someone doesn't notice at the time then it shouldn't matter later. On the basis of your reasoning we shouldn't prosecute pedophiles late in life - after all their victims are adults now and should have got over it. Where does your faulty logic end?

While there are definite issues about priorities and affordability, since George Osborne was Chancellor, there is no reason why state pension age can't be 65, 60 or even 55 for all.
There is no logic behind entitlement or what NIC funds - it's just the same as any other aspect of public expenditure - like finding £3 billion a year for the next century for Ukraine or hundreds of billions for speculative green technology.
The current government have taken lying to a whole new level, but too few people have the foggiest about public finances or how to educate themselves on the subject.
The WASPI women have been let down, whether they get reparations is a whole other matter - many will already be dead.

Thank you
People constantly throw that term around whenever someone says something they dislike without knowing the actual meaning.

That is a vile comparison to make. SA survivors have nothing in common with the WASPI issue.

Seriously give your head a wobble.

Rightsraptor
I had 2 years 4 months notice that I would have wait a further 5 years 11 months than I'd expected before I was eligible to draw my state pension. I still have the letter. Can any of you justify that? How was I supposed to make up for 6 years' worth of pension in 2 years and still live day to day?

Stay in your job until pensionable age? Just like everybody else has to do.

I have no idea what a WASPI woman is. I know a 'WASP' is a 'White Anglo-Saxon Protestant', remember having to write about that at school in the 1960s. I'm a pnsioner, am I WASPI and, if so, how do I find out?

PS: I googled:- Women Against State Pension Inequality

No I am not a WASPI. I receive the same state pnsion as did my late husband. I always worked and contributed to NI and tax which presumably entitles me to that.

It's no different to anyone else. We are all paying in today - we have no idea what the retirement age will be when we come round to retire.

That is the reality of pensions. If they'd wanted to leave some pension to the remaining spouse, some occupational pensions pay out 50% to their wife/ husband.

There is no 'pot of gold' for state pensions. It's money coming in from taxation of working people that funds it.

If you retire at 65 and die at 66, that's just tough luck. But it's balanced out by some people taking their pension to aged 100.

When the state pension was first introduced, the average life expectancy was 70. So it was to fund 5 years of life.

Now that life expectancy is mid-80s, you can appreciate the burden on the tax payer.

We currently have around 3 million people of employment age who are choosing not to work and therefore don't contribute to the economy through taxes. This is not sustainable.

The government is even talking about having the state pension means tested so anyone with a private pension through work may receive less.

You're not seriously comparing pedophiles being charged after victims have grown (after a crime that happened when they were kids) to a well publicised policy change that happened while the women were grown and with many years notice?
That comparison would be crazy so I'm assuming I've misunderstood.

Women should support each other.

My anecdotal evidence is very much a crucial factor in the current debate.

Yes, younger women should be grateful for the increased level of equality towards women.

Yes some of the attitudes expressed on this thread are disgusting.

Use semantics if you choose but your argument doesn’t do you any favours, frankly.

The Government has been found to be wrong, by their own Ombudsman. What is the point of having an Ombudsman if they are ignored?
Yes, it is right that the pension age is the same for men and women, but when WASPI women began work equality of opportunity and pay was far, far, less than it is today. In return they could retire sooner.
The Government now in power has done an about turn, prior to the election they were all supportive of the WASPIs.
It is no good saying the money is better spent elsewhere, the money is due to those women!

If you are 'living on scraps', the obvious course is to get a job. Retirement is not an irreversible condition.

And as I said, nobody has tried to convince you that your experience of inequality isn’t true, which is what gaslighting is.

The other statements are opinions, not facts. People may disagree with your opinions, and that isn’t gaslighting.

It’s not semantics. Words do actually mean things.

It affects me. I didn’t get any information about it.

Yes, it is right that the pension age is the same for men and women, but when WASPI women began work equality of opportunity and pay was far, far, less than it is today. In return they could retire sooner.

That was never the agreement. Not sure where you got that idea from.
It make no sense either because by retiring early they'd have less income than if they worked - even in a lower paid job.

It's also untrue because many many women went into higher education, got degrees and did jobs that paid the same as men.

We're talking about women now in their 60s- not their 90s.