When I first started work it was commonly expected that my cohort would retire at 55 , courtesy of early retirement , job pension , endowment payments etc .
I remember well the outrage when men’s and women’s pension ages were equalised . What I remember most is that the MP who represented Gowan (in Glasgow) said the whole pension debate was immaterial for men in his constituency where average life expectancy means that most will die before pension age . This is still true today where average life expectancy for men is 65.8 in Gowan .
It seemed perfectly fair that pension ages were equalised and long overdue.
Likewise as population has aged and pension bill has increased it has meant that pension age has increased . This is yet another bill which our children and grandchildren will have to pay.
Personally I have not been well enough to work in my main job until 67 but can see why age has been raised and had made provisions for increased working age as finances allowed and as the benefits I thought I was going to get from pensions disappeared.
I find it difficult to see the justification for compensation for pension changes that were discussed, well advertised, necessary and made up for unfairness in the system for men who have always had a shorter life span but had to work 5 years longer. Particularly as the cohort of people this affected had many welfare , housing , health and social benefits that are no longer available let alone better final salary pension arrangements for those with private pensions .
Just as many of my parents generation had early retirements , large endowment pay outs etc that my generation didn’t , we have had many benefits that the
next generation haven’t had .
With this background it’s difficult to have much sympathy for WASPI claims for compensation.