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 don't have to support someone simply because they have ovaries. This whole women must support women whatever thing is nonsense. I will support other women when I agree with them but not when I don't.

Were you living under a rock?

Where were you?

Were you working then?

Did you never listen to the radio? Watch TV? Read newspapers or women's magazines? Did you never check your own pension forecast?

Pensions at 60 for women and 65 for men at the time went against equality, you know the thing our ancestors fought for...

Do you never read, watch or listen to the news? Do you not perceive that you have any responsibility to keep yourself informed?

And what planning had you done for your retirement? Had you really never bothered to check your entitlement to state pension? What would you have done differently if you had known?

ETA this was aimed at @Soontobe60 but I forgot to quote. Sorry.

Sorry if this is naive but I don’t understand Not everyone knew in time to make alternative arrangements : what are these alternative arrangements? Weren’t they just expected to continue working?

What a ludicrous comparison

I'm on that age group but hate the waspi women title. With the state of the country I think it is time for people to move on. If they send me some money I'll probably divide it between grandchildren. They all have savings accounts and it is nice to add something for them

Waspi here, pension postponed by 6 years, totally embarrassed by them, they need to just accept it.
Should have taken responsibility for own pensions, planned ahead etc etc
I wasn't written to, ever, but did the above

The Ombudsman wasn't ignored. It made a recommendation and the Government made a statement in Parliament and set out a ridiculously long written response as to why it disagreed with the recommendation. That's hardly ignoring.

Ultimately the Ombudsman can take a view on whether maladministration occurred but it doesn't have a scooby about the practicalities or cost of setting up or administering the type of scheme is suggested.

Frankly it's findings were pretty flimsy too. Deciding on the basis of reviewing a grand total of six individuals' cases that a blanket restitution scheme needed to be established is incredulous. The idea that people who didn't bother checking when they can retire would be materially better off if they'd received unsolicited letters from DWP slightly earlier is fanciful too.

Ultimately governments make tax and spending decisions that affect individuals' financial situations for the worse all the time often with no notice at all. This must have been one of the best signposted in the nation's history.

The Government was absolutely right to reject the Ombudsman's recommendations.

Well you could make decisions like save some money if you can. What I did was carry on working till 70 but cut my hours.

Glad I'm not the only one. I get embarrassed by them as well. As if we couldn't decide what to do.

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.

Surely that’s standard though? You pay in much longer than you receive otherwise they can’t possibly work.

At the end of the day all they had to do was continue to work an additional 6 years. It’s hard to feel really sorry for them. And if they weren’t working maybe spend 6 years reflecting on how lucky they were to be a housewife forever…

The thing is, where do you draw the line?

I have two sisters who are waspi age. I'm a year and few months outside the grouping. They both knew about the changes right from the start, I knew about the changes. Even my dm knew about the changes and her grip on current affairs was zero.

The changes were documented everywhere, on the tv, radio, in magazines, on bill boards and discussed in workplaces. Someone would have had to live under a rock not to have known about it.

The idea of compensating millions of women because some claim they were unaware is unfair. The rest of us will have to pick up the bill. Why can't they carry on working to 67 like we will? I was originally told I would receive my state pension at 60, and it's drifted out over the years. Ill have to work an extra 7 years, I'm not making a massive fuss. I've already got 42 years NI paid but still working full time and not grumbling.

To be honest I never really understood why women retired 5 years earlier than men anyway, given we are generally longer lived. So no, not much sympathy.

As I’ve said, your argument is not a good look.

Exactly. It's hard to believe that these women, who were apparently oblivious to everything happening around them, incapable of keeping up with basic current affairs and seemingly not bothered enough about their state pension to ever bother checking their likely entitlement, would somehow suddenly have been savvy enough to have been able to make alternative provisions that would have enabled a comfortable early retirement. I'm not buying it.

and yours @Perseimmion isn't logical or sensible in any way at all.

No it never seemed fair that women retired earlier. Well it wasn't fair was it.

My mum is furious about this and absolutely believes she should get compensation. But she knew about the changes because she's the one who told me at the time. In her head she's rewritten history to say she didn't know. But truth is she's just angry that they changed it and no amount of information at the time would have changed that.

It was publicised at the time. It’s factually wrong to state otherwise.

They are embarrassing themselves. They are admitting that they took no responsibility for their own retirement, effectively, and implying that young and middle-aged taxpayers must now bail them out. Shameless.

Am not sure that they should be compensated, as I'm pretty sure I was aware of changes in retirement ages and I was (and still am) way off pension age! My mum was screwed on state pension because of rules surrounding supply teaching/pension contributions, which have now changed but she doesn't get compensation. Just gets ridiculous after a while about whether people should or shouldn't be compensated.....

Also a WASPI, also knew of the change and took out a private top up pension in my 30s to fill the gap. Can't remember if I got a letter, but was certainly aware of the change to pension ages to equalise with men and the consequences of that from the news.

There are so many women here who did know, and have no patience with those who claim ignorance. that I suggest you all write to the CEO of Waspi and let her know your thoughts.

I am very sceptical why she feels the need to head this campaign.

It’s not necessarily that we wanted to retire at 60, it’s about making financial decisions based on information given. If I had known I would gave up wait a further 6 years for my State pension I would have made different choices regarding my private pension in order to increase its value at 60.
I had planned to retire at 60 and look after any grandchildren that I had, but ended up semi retiring so I can’t support my children with childcare as much as I want, childcare as we know is really expensive and there’s always threads on here about wanting free childcare from grandparents.
A 60 yr old would be much more able to support an aging parent rather than relying on state funded carers. It’s generally women who take n these caring roles, so it’s women why are disproportionately affected.
theres a much wider picture to this. It’s not a race to the bottom, I believe everyone should be able to access their state pension at the same age, but 70 is too high. I’d say 64 is an optimal age.

Women of my era have faced discrimination most of their lives. Things have vastly improved for younger women. That’s a really great step forward for all women.

It would be brilliant if younger women could educate themselves on the historical discrimination that women have faced.

IHTH.