Govt considering u-turn on WASPI compensation

[Ticklyoctopus]

https://news.sky.com/story/government-to-reconsider-whether-to-give-compensation-to-waspi-women-13468696

Oh God no 😖😖😖😖

But it's not about fighting injustice or standing shoulder to shoulder. Older women are (essentially) expecting younger women to give them more money. We don't want to and can't afford to.

Hear hear!!!

The only people who were shafted were those, male and female, who were affected when the government decided with short notice to up the pension age from 65.

The whinging waspis who want to be hand held through life deserve nothing.

If ignorance of the law isn't a defence, then ignorance of this being advertised extensively for years isn't one either.

You mean being advertised extensively from at least 15 years in advance, that problem?

I'm so sick of the accusations of ageism here.

Ageism is treating someone negatively because of their age.

For some reason this is never young people who are spoken about and treated negatively because of their age all the time and who are actively discriminated against in terms of housing benefit.

Speaking about intergenerational inequality is not ageist - it is an exploration of why the wealthiest cohort in the country takes the most resources and pays the least.

It is not ageist to feel despair that once again the government is considering giving more to those who already have the most and is doing it by taking from those who have less.

It is about fairness - and giving Waspi women money for no good reason is unfair - 'they weren't adequately informed' - adults have a responsibility to inform themselves about these things.

What a load of rubbish.

I was 25 in 1995 when all the information and advertising started. It was all over the papers, there were tv programmes, radio shows. It was endless because it was such big news!

The government's report details the extent of the media reporting about it.

You would have had to have lived in a cave not to have come across it somewhere or other.

Handy that some want to pretend they forgot about all of that when there's a potential windfall coming their way.

I am 70, so fall in this age group, I can remember when the government announced the change in age. It was in all the papers and all the media covered it. I did feel upset when it was announced but felt that it was fair that women were given the same retirement age as men. I don’t agree with paying compensation. I think it makes women look stupid, if you bumbled along towards retirement without making any effort to look up when you would retire then you deserve all you got. The information was available to all on HMRC website.

Some older women. If you read the full thread you can see that there are women in this cohort who agree that compensation for this is not a priority and would be very unfair. On the TV you see a group of vociferous people who don’t represent everyone. It’s the same with a lot of issues, the news reports a certain angle.

Yes of course it's only some older women. I assumed in context it was obvious I meant the ones crying for compensation. Apologies.

You are spectacularly missing the point.

How much will the WASPI women get?

I'm at the tail end of tge WASPI cohort. I was aware of rhe changes, but accepted them. In the end, I was able to retire slightly ahead of receiving my state pension because I had good workplace pension, and a DH who accrued pensions in his own right.
My 70-year old friend, on the other hand, feels very bitter. She was a single mother, often working poorly paid jobs, with periods of unemployment. She is an intelligent, politically aware woman but claims to have had no notice, and is a fully paid up WASPI member. She dreams of how the "stolen" money could change her life. It's a tricky subject between us.
I think a small amount of compensation, on a sliding scale based on age, would be OK, but nothing more.

I agree that it is ridiculous but so is the argument that because women faced historical discrimination in employment and pay that they should be entitled to retire earlier than men.

My point is that other groups also faced historical discrimination in employment and pay and no one (rightly so) is arguing that they should have been entitled to retire at an earlier age.

According to BBC 1-3k but asking for 10.

I don’t begrudge the Waspi women. As a late Gen Xer with a retirement age of 68, I just hope I’m fit and healthy to keep working until that age! (And hope it didn’t increase in the next 22 years!)

Meanwhile, the UK government is giving £20million of our tax money to Ethiopia to train tax collectors….

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/11/09/british-public-paying-20m-to-train-tax-collectors-in-ethiop/

Did you read beyond the headline?

I don’t think anyone has said that every woman of WASPI age feels this way. But you have to see the wider context. Todays pensioners have had the best financial days this country has ever seen, they retired far earlier than we will, many will be drawing a pension for 25+ years and the rest of the country is barely above water, yet they’re still clamouring for more at our expense. It’s awful and just so greedy.

Financial circumstances change for everyone at a moment’s notice, that doesn’t entitle us to compensation from the state. Tuition fees tripled overnight the year after I left school. Our mortgage shot up after the Trusterfuck a few years ago. Nobody gave us years to ‘financially plan’ for those things, they just happened. The WASPIs had far more warning than most, if they lived under a rock and refused to show even the smallest bit of common sense how is that our problem?

I will be absolutely livid if those goes ahead. The audacity to moan that they couldn't retire at 60 in this climate is embarrassing tbh.

Yes I did. Did you?

Yes. So I'm struggling to see what your point is or what it has to do with this topic?

Pensioners haven't got the country into a financial mess. It's the government who make all the financial decisions, not older people.

I have a WASPI friend, she is very intelligent, retired professional, keeps up to date with politics. She absolutely new perfectly well about the changes to pension age. She is a prominent WASPI campaigner she pretends she had no idea publicly as she is hoping to get a pay out. She is also pretending to have painful arthritis in her knee to try and get attendance allowance. She gets prescriptions for strong painkillers which she doesn't take and throws in the bin. She has had occupational therapist to the house to discuss adaptations to help her get in and out of bed. She takes a fold up chair with her and sits down when outside. She is absolutely fine. She has the beginnings of very mild arthritis in her knee but we both know loads of people who are milking the system getting benefits to fund a lifestyle and not having to work when there is nothing wrong with them. And before people get on my back saying some disabilities are not visible, yes I know that, and the geniune claimants with real issues completely deserve their benefits, everyone agrees with that. But, there are millions of people exagerrating symptoms for the purposes of getting disability benefits and choosing not to work. And for those people who say there is less than 1% fraud, those less than 1% are just the people who have been caught, most people don't get caught and if you don't know that benefit scrounging is an epidemic you are living in a bubble and you have no idea what is going on in the real world. I am really fond of my friend, I am not criticising what she is doing, she is getting on the bandwagon at the age of 68 and trying to get something for nothing, likes millions of other people in the UK.

This is the group, which also includes men, that deserve compensation if anyone does.

In itself, no, but it can and is used as a slur.

I agree with you. The only thing I’m pointing out is the generalisation about entitlement and the way in which some vociferous campaigners are being seen as representative of the entire age group . Boomer was initially just a descriptor but now like the term Karen it’s being used to stereotype people, shut them down and disrespect them. I have said above that I had plenty of notice and don’t agree with compensation.

Because handing over £20million to a corrupt government abroad is a waste of tax payer money.

If our government wasn’t so quick to dish out millions of pounds to other governments then maybe we would have more money to spend on people in the Uk, and maybe they wouldn’t have to go back on their election promise not to increase taxes on working people (eg NI and also income tax - which they are widely expected to do).

And maybe, just maybe they wouldn’t need to backtrack on the compensation the Waspi women.

HTH.