No payout for WASPI women

[ErrolTheDragon]

Fury as women hit by pension age rise denied payouts www.bbc.com/news/articles/czr36842nd6o

Wow... it hadn't occurred to me that the ombudsman report on this would just be ignored.

But thats the nature of everything, my DD was severely disadvantaged in youth junior sport because her DOB is the day before the age group cut off, so she was always the youngest in her races... some were 2 years older than her!

I'm not equating this to losing pension but cut offs mean some will gain, others lose.
You'll see the same with the pension age, some people will effectively work almost a year longer than others, its not a reason for compo.

My last paragraph - in the earlier post - on affordability, is the only thing that matters in todays post 14 years of Austerity and mis management.

You'll see the same with the pension age, some people will effectively work almost a year longer than others

How do you work that one out when everyone gets their pension on their birthday? Instead of the ridiculous variation in ages they could have said every woman affected by the 2011 change got her pension on her 64th birthday. There would have been winners and losers but it would have been fair. Much easier to administer too.

I’m a real life example of the cliff edge. I was born on 6 August, someone born on the 5th, ie the day before, got their pension four months before me.

But there are examples of this happening everywhere. Whenever new benefits or taxes are introduced there are always people who just miss out or just get caught. It's life.

I know that 🙄 Doesn’t stop me wishing my mum had taken that dose of castor oil 24 hours earlier - I was apparently supposed to have been born on 24 July!

29 January 2026

Ministers reject Waspi calls for compensation after rethink

Women affected by changes to the state pension age have reacted with fury after ministers again rejected their claim for compensation.

The government reconsidered the case after a new document came to light, but has again concluded no compensation should be paid.
Campaigners say 3.6 million women born in the 1950s were not properly informed of the rise in their state pension age, which brought it into line with men.

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) group said the latest decision demonstrated "utter contempt" for those affected.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jeyn3yxn9o

I’m a WASPI woman and was affected by this; I grumbled away at the time, but it was completely right to equalise men and women’s pension ages.
I just don’t understand how all these women can say they didn’t know about it - we definitely had letters, it was all over the news and it was constantly discussed at work. Part of having equal rights for women, is taking responsibility for sorting out your own financial affairs. It’s no longer the 19th century! It was easy enough to check out your state pension age and request an estimate of your pension.
The idea that you would just assume that you’d get your state pension at 60 and then plan your retirement was extremely naive. Those protesting should be embarrassed.

Isn't part of the problem that in opposition Labour promised to support them. Now they are in Government they arent. Another broken Labour promise?

“This decision slams the door on justice for a generation of women who lost out through no fault of their own.

“They’ve had years of delays and false hope, but the government’s chosen to stand by a flawed process rather than do the right thing.

“Tens of thousands of women had the rug pulled from beneath them. They had little notice of key changes to their pensions and no chance to plan.

“Many have been forced to work longer, burn through savings or deal with poverty in retirement.

“Ministers must urgently rethink this decision. By doing nothing they’re deepening the sense of betrayal and alienating women who did everything asked of them.

https://www.unison.org.uk/news/2026/01/refusal-to-compensate-waspi-women-deepens-injustice-says-unison/

You can't give compensatiom to people for not watching the news- especially when much of it would have gone to people already comfortable.

Have a look what's happened witb student loans where people are paying an extra 9% tax because they were born a few years too late.

There would have been outrage at more benefits going to Boomers when younger people would be picking up the bill.

Good. Why should women younger than them who have to work until 68+ pay for their ‘compensation’, simply because they don’t like equality?

The first cohort affected was always going to grumble.

Fairly recently I received a letter informing me of my state pension at age 67 in 2030.
Because I follow the news, I knew years ago that pension ages for women were being equalised, and that this was being accelerated by the Tories after their 2010 election win.
Letters should really have been sent to women affected. I also believe everyone should get at least 10 years notice of any change especially as many people don’t access mainstream media anymore.
However what is done is done and we can’t afford £10bn without tax hikes or spending cuts.

I’m that age, so are most of my friends and we all knew about the rise in pension age. I think it’s a massive grift by loads of them.

I do have sympathy. It was talked about at the time, so i find it hard to believe that they didnt know. But it was complicated, and i think the age was talked about more than not being able to use their husbands record to claim pensions.

It was possible to get a pensions forecast, but they'd have to know something changed to bother checking, perhaps.

But i think we are all going to be in the position of starting work with one retirement age, and finishing with another.

The first cohort affected was always going to grumble.

This.

Isn't part of the problem that in opposition Labour promised to support them. Now they are in Government they arent. Another broken Labour promise?

Yes, but all of the WASPI women are obviously mature adults who've lived for many years, by definition; they aren't youngsters who may still naively believe that what politicians say and what they actually believe and do will be the same thing.

Labour faithfully promised no tax increases, yet that's what we've got now that they're in power - even just the freezing of thresholds means blatant tax rises, as any fool knows. All governments do it - every single time.

Will they compensate everybody for lying to us all? Or for any other campaign promises and assurances that never materialise? Or do we live in the real world and accept that expecting politicians (especially when in opposition) not to lie is as realistic as expecting poo not to smell and winter not to be cold and get on and make the best of it?

Did they? Promise to support them that is, a mistake there.

As a waspi woman I never expected compensation. There’s no doubt that we were treated very shabbily but we were unlucky. The oldest 1950s women will be 67 this year and claiming their pensions. It’s over.

This idea that the government "promised" compensation is not correct.

It was promised in the Labour manifesto of 2019 but that was rejected by the electorate and given that older people were much more likely to vote Tory, that would presumably include many Waspi aged women.

It wasn't in the 2024 manifesto and Rachel Reeves pretty much ruled it out by saying she'd done no costings for it.

The claim that Labour have "betrayed" them is as well-founded as all their other claims, which is not at all.

I definitely remember photos of Starmer and Reeves with waspi women.

In a way, its worse to use them for promotional purpose without being bothered to look into costing of it all. It was always going to be expensive.

It looks like it. March 2022 Scottish Labour Party conference

I’ve just googled and no images show up. There’s one of Rayner with two women though.

For clarity, I think what Labour promised after having been elected, ie last November and no doubt in response to being lobbied about it, that they would reconsider decision about compensation.

The announcement yesterday was the result of "reconsidering".

No times to find the links but for some reasons members of the SNP are seeing this as good material to attack Starmer.

I wonder why?

Thats it, yes.

I think it was the right decision. As far as state pension goes men got a much worse deal. Not only was their life expectancy less but they had to work five years longer. In any case poorer pensioners qualify for pension credit.

Its not that the pension age was equalised, it was that the orginal decision was made in the 90s, with a phased introduction based dob. Then in 2011, the government chaged the phased induction so women were told of the new date without much notice, and some say they weren't informed at all.

Very few waspi women are eligible for pension credit because they’re on the new state pension. In any case that’s entirely irrelevant, the issue is having the goalposts moved twice, the second time with very little notice.

There’s an interesting article in the times (sorry if someone has already posted) about the real injustice being the gender (sex) pension gap, particularly for women of all ages working in the private sector - although I was aware of this, the disparity is shocking. The writer suggests various remedies that could go some way towards improving the situation. But almost all of those depend upon positive discrimination towards women and (I make no apologies for sounding like a stuck record) if we have a government that refuses to define what a woman is, none of these suggestions (see quote below) will go very far.
https://www.thetimes.com/money/pensions/article/gender-pension-gap-defined-contribution-waspi-inequality-cb2r6bs8w

https://archive.ph/gki0e

From the article:
Pensions policy alone cannot fix the social and economic reasons for women earning less than men over their lifetimes. More flexible work and better childcare policies are badly needed. But without new ideas and action, generations of women who were raised knowing that they were (at least) equal to men will reach later life as second-class economic citizens, purely by reason of sex.