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.

The two ladies on BBC this morning complaining bitterly about this looked affluent and perfectly capable of getting a job if they feel they are hard up.
The head of the campaign said that many waspi women had never had to live on the amount they received as state pension and were struggling.
How to be deaf can you be.
So many pensioners and other people have to manage on state pension or disability benefits for example.
These women came over as entitled, spoilt middle class ...the money needed for compensating them would have to come from current tax payers , many not living such comfortable lives.
They should stop this ridiculous tantrumming and get on with enjoying their retirement

tone deaf

Of course they did, whatever people say, you cannot take off them what they had already got and still expect to win a GE.

Labour have tried this before and they ended up being a party of protest and out of power.

The waspi commitment was made pre the Ombudsman report and was not in their manifesto, which is what people vote on or should Labour be held to free Broadband and no tuition fees too? because that was in their 2019 manifesto.

But what you seem to be saying is that Labour reverse the NI cuts and take this money from nurses, teachers, carers etc give to money to pensioners, many of whom are very well off and were perfectly well aware of the pension changes?

I was affected by the 2011 changes, which I knew about, though they weren’t well publicised - luckily I was able to keep working. But I know two women who had an uncomfortable time financially as a result. Their long term plans were based on the original information, their particular employment, involved other family members, and weren’t easy to change.
Do I want compensation? No, I’m OK. Do they deserve some redress? Probably.

The two ladies on BBC this morning complaining bitterly about this looked affluent and perfectly capable of getting a job if they feel they are hard up.

Bad move. Perhaps they should have appeared in mismatched items from the charity shop, coughed without covering their mouths and pulled faces at the presenters.

@borntobequiet ..if you were aware of it , how come these other women weren't?

I think people assume information was as available then as it is now. There were an awful lot of women who did not need to work, their news came from watching the 6.00 o clock news, if they had finished cooking the family evening meal by then. The assumption was their husbands pension would be enough for them both, they did not need to go out seeking information about pensions as we do now.

We're talking about the 1990s, not the 1950s. I'm only slightly younger than these women, but what you're saying here seems more like my parents' generation than mine (or possibly even my grandparents' generation).

Why do you think anyone would "assume information was as available then as it is now"? We're not incapable of remembering what it was like 30 years ago. Most people didn't have computers and those of us who did remember the joys of a slow dial-up connection to the internet. But I was aware of the changes, even though I was a long way from pension age and spent several years in the 90s living outside the UK.

And it's the 2011 changes which seem to be the main issue. Information certainly was as available then as it is now.

And this comment is just absurd
they did not need to go out seeking information about pensions as we do now

Of course people planned their pensions back then. Do you think pension planning was only invented in the 21st century?

But why did they retire without first getting a pension forecast from the DWP? This would have told them how much pension they would get and the date on which it would be paid. It seems a bit rash to retire at 60 assuming they would get a full pension without checking that they had paid enough contributions and whether it would be better to continue working a bit longer.

What sort of long term plans had they made without checking this very basic information? Their 'planning' seems to have overlooked a vital piece of information.

I feel embarrassed for you that you clearly know the square root of fuck all about the WASPI campaign.

Agree

Absolutely this.

Pre-internet, there wasn't the same easy access to cat videos and inane chatter; but when it came to very important things, such as having the info you needed to plan your financial wellbeing in retirement, the information was very much available to you - even if you did have to phone or send a letter to the relevant applicable public body.

Yet a lot of women of that generation, and even younger generations, have not had regular F/T working lives due to family and domestic respionsibilities. Many of these women will have had joint accounts with their husband, and in many instances left a lot of the financial planning to him. Women returning to work after many years at home or women working P/T or temping roles tend not to be so clued up on finance and accounting and the associated terminology.

I’m pretty gobsmacked by the entitlement of the WASPI women and their lack of understanding for others. They are campaigning to for the government to pay £10 billion to compensate them for retirement at the age of 65, when their children and grandchildren will be working into their 70s and the country is nearly bankrupt.

Labour were complete fools for backing their cause and now they are paying the price as a government.

I'm 100% with the government on this.

I don't think it would be a reasonable use of taxpayers money to compensate women who are disappointed they have to work for a few more years.

I am only a little bit younger than the WASPI women, and have always been aware that my pension age would be increasing. And they still get their pensions at a younger age than I will.

If there are women in their 60's who are financially struggling as they are unable to work due to ill health, that should be dealt with by improving disability benefits.

If there are women who are struggling financially because they spent a lot of time caring for others, that should be dealt with by looking at the value of the state pension and ensuring the requirements for claiming it don't discriminate against female carers.

But compensation because you couldn't afford to retire at 60? Sod off.

But what you seem to be saying is that Labour reverse the NI cuts and ...
I'm saying no such thing. I'm saying that Labour shouldn't make promises and then break them. Starmer had so few policies (apart from "Change" - as if that is a policy! It's just waffle for gullible people to fill in with their own hopeful wishes) that it is outrageous that they broke this one.
They did it so quickly that it is obvious it was planned all along.

When I started work my pension age was 60 - I've never received a letter telling me its not.
By the time I'm 67 I would have had over £80K in state pension if the rules hadn't changed- do you think I should be compensated too? If not, why not?

I suspect they were aware, but like many others are pretending they weren't in the hope of a pay out.

It’s not about knowing or not knowing. For many women it’s the lack of notice about the most impactful changes in 2011, those were made just as hundreds of thousands of women were about to reach retirement age. If you’re going to criticise a campaign group at least take the trouble to understand what their grievance is.

It's been shown that hundreds of thousands of people are entitled to the WFP but not claiming it. If you know someone who's genuinely struggling, it's statistically likely that they can get it, they just need to actually do something about it.

Of course I don't dislike an entire group of people, what a silly thing to say. It's just that there are working people with families in this country who can barely afford to eat - and they haven't had decades of easily affordable housing, free education and final salary pensions in which to make hay, so my sympathy tends to be with them and I don' t agree that monies should be transferred away from them toward the most mollycoddled generation in history.

Well I disagree. These workers are providing a service. And men have had a far worse deal as regards state pensions. Are they Maspis

I heard about it by accident on Radio 4 Moneybox, where concern was being expressed that few had heard of it as it hadn’t been communicated adequately.
Not everyone listens to Moneybox, sadly.

Yet a lot of women of that generation, and even younger generations, have not had regular F/T working lives due to family and domestic respionsibilities.

True, but they can get NI credits if they are a parent of a young child or have other caring responsibilities.

Many of these women will have had joint accounts with their husband, and in many instances left a lot of the financial planning to him.

Nothing wrong with joint accounts, and I don't see the relevance here. But please, don't imply that women are less capable than men at financial planning. Some women may choose to leave this to their husbands, but we are well past the era when women weren't allowed to control their own finances.

Women returning to work after many years at home or women working P/T or temping roles tend not to be so clued up on finance and accounting and the associated terminology.

There is absolutely no reason why women should be less clued up about any of this than men.

Edited to add that I'm pretty appalled at anyone bringing out these arguments as excuses on a feminist discussion board of all places.

How much notice did they need? None of those affected by the 2011 changes would have been due to retire before 2016 under the 1995 changes.

what a silly thing to say

Tbf that's what I thought on reading your pp

It's not about who I know clearly since 2.5m will be in hardship. They are vulnerable to the WFP cut as per Age UK statement.

Because all those points were made about an older generation to which they apply.