Go WASPI!

What injustice?
A collection of women who don't bother to check on their pension rights while they are working and then claim ignorance as an excuse.

Well said CvD66 Waspi women born in the 50s have suffered. I will be 66 this month, I have worked 6 years longer for my pension. I am one of the lucky ones, some have died waiting, and some have ill health.
I did not get my letter until very late. I have been able to work, but their are some tragic stories of suffering, women having to sell their homes, women who are/were to ill to work. Women who were doing more manual jobs which took a toll on their health.

I never understood why friends who were born before end April 1953 got their pensions years before me. For being born just 6 months after them 4 years were added to my wait.

Primrose53

I never understood why friends who were born before end April 1953 got their pensions years before me. For being born just 6 months after them 4 years were added to my wait.

No, it wasn't. If you're going to moan about something, get your facts straight and people will take you more seriously.

I thought everyone would check their Orbison entitlement a long time before retiring, know I fund a few years before.

Primrose53

I never understood why friends who were born before end April 1953 got their pensions years before me. For being born just 6 months after them 4 years were added to my wait.

I was born in March 1953 and I reached pensionable age at 63 years old, so not years before you, as it appears you were born in September or October 1953. I assume you reached pensionable age round about your 63rd birthday, as did I. That’s because we both were affected by the sliding scale (sliding upwards) as the woman’s pensionable age was equalised with men’s pensionable age. The rights and wrongs of this can be debated till the cows come home, but you were not deprived of four years of pension that your friends received unless they were very much older than you. A woman born six months before you, ie me, was not paid state pension until age 63, and many women born after you are having to wait till their 66th birthday.

Did your friends have an occupational pension that they could claim earlier?

Thank you for the update CvD66

I was born in 1951 and knew for many years that I wouldn't get my pension at 60. It was in the newspapers many years before and there was a government website to check the exact date I became eligible so I never felt I wasn't aware of the changes. I find it hard to believe that people expected their pensions at 60.

The 1953 women were treated badly (I'm older, btw).
For every month later you were born, your pension date went up 3 months. So a Jan 1953 baby retired 3 years younger than a Dec 1953 baby.
Personally I'd be grateful if, on social media in general, women would stop saying 'I knew, so others should have known'. You gave no idea of the circumstances of other people, then or now. Govt should have sent everyone individual letters and didn't. Some women, in their early 40s, were working flat out 16, 17 hours a day in 1993.
Now to increase SPA by one year, ten years notice must be given. Did some WASPIs get 60 years' notice?

Personally I'd be grateful if, on social media in general, women would stop saying 'I knew, so others should have known'. You gave no idea of the circumstances of other people, then or now. Govt should have sent everyone individual letters and didn't. Some women, in their early 40s, were working flat out 16, 17 hours a day in 1993.
I couldn’t agree more, Chardy. The sneering tone of some posts, and the way they basically accuse people they don’t know of lying is offensive. Why would anyone lie about it? It is also extremely arrogant to assume that you know what other people think or know.

I was aware before pension age (I am still before pension age) but I did not get a letter or any other communication about the increase. I am very aware (from voluntary work) of others who did not know, however, and of women who found out a year or so before they thought they could retire. Also, knowing and being able to make up the shortfall are two different things.

I just don’t understand the motives of those who disbelieve other women, and who sneer at them in the way many do. If anyone can explain why they think people would lie about this I would be interested to hear.

growstuff

Primrose53

I never understood why friends who were born before end April 1953 got their pensions years before me. For being born just 6 months after them 4 years were added to my wait.

No, it wasn't. If you're going to moan about something, get your facts straight and people will take you more seriously.

What a very rude reply!! It was a slip of the finger. My friend was born April 53 and got her SP in July 2016 aged 63 years 2 months and 22 days. Another friend born Feb 53 got hers in 2015 while I had to wait until July 2018.

Never mind people not taking me seriously, you should be more concerned about people seeing you as a nasty piece if work.

Primrose53

I never understood why friends who were born before end April 1953 got their pensions years before me. For being born just 6 months after them 4 years were added to my wait.

Because the pension age needs to rise.

rafichagran

Well said CvD66 Waspi women born in the 50s have suffered. I will be 66 this month, I have worked 6 years longer for my pension. I am one of the lucky ones, some have died waiting, and some have ill health.
I did not get my letter until very late. I have been able to work, but their are some tragic stories of suffering, women having to sell their homes, women who are/were to ill to work. Women who were doing more manual jobs which took a toll on their health.

My dad died just before his 65th birthday if he was a woman he would have been able to have had 5 years of retirement. Many men had manual jobs which took a toll on their health and had to struggle on till they were 65. There were injustices in both directions. It could be argued that as men die earlier they should retire earlier. We should look at these things from both directions and not just from our own point of view.

Congratulations to the Waspis who have pursued their rights in spite of all the nay-sayers.
This was an injustice to women.

I agree about men. When equalising the pension age it would have been possible to reduce the age for men whilst increasing the age for women and meeting somewhere in the middle 62 or 63.
As the French riot I wonder why we took it so quietly.

Yes I would have preferred equalising at 62.5 but it had to be equalised and I knew about it years ago so came as no surprise.

Glorianny

Congratulations to the Waspis who have pursued their rights in spite of all the nay-sayers.
This was an injustice to women.

I agree about men. When equalising the pension age it would have been possible to reduce the age for men whilst increasing the age for women and meeting somewhere in the middle 62 or 63.
As the French riot I wonder why we took it so quietly.

Agreed on all counts.

I have posted about this before. The usual suspects were very scathing that I didn't know about the age change even when I said the ONLY communication I had was ONE year before my 60th birthday saying my pension would be paid as planned 6 months after the date ,
Ihave the letter I have sent copies of it to the WASPI campaign ,Iam not lying about being "ignorant" of the fact. I had NO communication from DWP at all apart from the one I stated . It just passed me by in an exceptionally busy life .So shoot me!!
The implication from some on here is that I'm some type of dimwit who isn't up to date with whats happening around me ....nothing could be further from the truth .

I know, paddyann, and I also know that you are not alone. It is so offensive to suggest otherwise. We all know different things, and the people boasting that they knew about it so everyone else should have must think that they know everything, on the grounds that if one person is aware of something then the rest of the world should be too.

I’ve said before on Gransnet and I’ll say again, I was informed by letter of the first rise in my state pension eligibility age, but not the second rise of age of eligibility. I was initially informed that I would receive my state pension at age 61, but never at any stage informed that it had changed again that I would only become eligible for my state pension at age 63. I found this out by checking my pension benefits on the government website. Otherwise I would not have known. I was not informed.
You are not a dimwit paddyann, many women were simply not informed that their state pension age had changed. You and I are two of them.

I'm no dimwit either.

Pension age should be lower. 63 or possibly 64. There is no way that a manual worker can carry on until they are nearly seventy without damaging their health.

I’m another that had no personal letter from DWP ., neither did most of my friends. I was born July 1954 and didn’t get my pension until I was over 66.

Doodledog, Good for you for calling out the sneering tone some Gransnetters adopt. What has happened to the sisterhood? Judge not that ye be not judged.

I was born in the 60s and was told I would get a pension at the age of 60 I feel that if this was a private pension we all paid into with that information this change would be classed as a fraud so why isnt it?

Quite true I was never personally informed of the rise in pension age till close to my pension. I heard about it on the news.