Go WASPI!

I'm very, very current affairs orientated and it passed me by too. I was aware of discussions, and I thought they would split the difference at 63, but in fact the first I knew about raising the age to 64.5 was when my letter arrived when I was 55. A second letter arrived about a year later saying whoops, sorry, 66 actually.

I have no beef with the necessity to raise the retirement age, and I am fortunate that I'm still able to work full time even after my 66th birthday last year. BUT, they should have let us all know as soon as the changes were agreed.

I also think the change was implemented most unfairly. My stepsister, three years older than me, has received six years more pension.

I'm in the Doodledog group - perfectly intelligent and hardworking individual, who had only vaguely heard about the pension age increase, didn't do social media - Was there much social media in those days? and only discovered by checking online when I was around 57/8 that my pension wouldn't be coming in until 65, and then it gradually slid up to 66.

As it happens, I had to retire at 59 years 11 months on health grounds, although obvs had to wait until I was 66 to get the SP.

I do mind being sneered at.

Great news OP!

I'm another who simply wasn't informed. I'm not an idiot. I just didn't know. Luckily my occupational pension was payable at 60 so I took it then and waited for 6 years for my state pension.

I totally agree that pensions should be considered from both male and female views, especially men and woman undertaking manual work, but consideration should also be given to working mothers and the stresses and strains and complications due to childbirth and there’s no need to be nasty about this - my retirement date leapt up by 6 years and I didn’t feel the notice given was enough to allow me to “save” extra funds - there’s so many nuances and complications in this issue and many WASPI women, including me, feel “cheated”

I am saddened that some women are so horrible to others in a world dominated by men. The whole business of changing the pension age was perhaps a necessity but the way is was executed was a disgrace.
I was born in July 1953 and heard of the cut off date to the pension age when it was announced on budget day. I had no letter telling me that those born after April 1953 would not get their pension until the government deemed fit to allow it. Lets face it they only changed the date to make a lot of money for themselves.

What we seem to forget is that to get any pension you have had to work at least 30 years, it is not a benefit it is our money that was well earnt.

The other problem still faced by women today is that it is extremely difficult and almost impossible to get a job once you hit 55, because you are a woman, prime example are women presenters for the BBC. So when the pension age was announced many woman, like myself, had already been fired, dismissed or pensioned off because of the very fact they had turned 60. So there was no way we could get alternative employment and as in my case, had to rely on my husband's pension to see me through.

This is nothing to do with ignorance of the changes, but an acceptance in tolling the government line. So please just accept that we were not told the truth about what the consequences of the changes meant in reality.

So ladies please let's not waste our energies being rude and nasty to other women. Let's be kind to each other by showing a united front against the rich, greedy b....., men in power whose only interest is to make themselves richer. If you want to change the world vote for change and women in the next election.

What a horrible comment Ezybee. Just because you knew it doesn’t mean that it was general knowledge. Even on the DWP website pension age for women was shown as 60 until quite recently. I am 1954, got no letter and wasn’t made aware until quite late.. I was made redundant at 60 - try getting another job after that - regardless of how well qualified. And many like me worked part time and not allowed to join pension scheme until comparatively recently, and even then can only contribute what family circumstances allow.

Doodledog

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.

Thanks Doodledog It is lovely of you to acknowledge we have views which coincide. "There is more that unites us than divides us" RIP Jo Cox.

I got my state pension at 60 but am glad to hear that these women have received justice at last. Government information is not always easily accessed or transparent if you dont have access to the internet. Lets not forget that the internet was not too widely available until the 1990s unless you were an academic. I have seen several threads where posters were attempting to access information on their pensions - one of my nephews is currently in this position - and the process is not all that straightforward.

I am just grateful that in my case the DWP wrote to me months in advance with the information to claim my state pension.

‘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.’

What an unnecessarily harsh and unkind response.

Born October 1955, and pension age for me went up twice. First time to 65 and then to 66. I can't remember how I knew it was happening but I did, I don't think I had a letter so it must have been publicised.

I’m another who was born in 1954 and was unaware of the pension age change until quite late on. I consider myself reasonably up to date on current affairs, pre-internet I read at least one newspaper each day, saw the TV news and so on.

I lived abroad for some years so possibly it passed me by then but we always came home to stacks of mail so I doubt that I missed any letter that was sent. My Dh who is meticulous with his tax was also unaware. Maybe we’re both just ignoramuses. 🙄

Cossy

I totally agree that pensions should be considered from both male and female views, especially men and woman undertaking manual work, but consideration should also be given to working mothers and the stresses and strains and complications due to childbirth and there’s no need to be nasty about this - my retirement date leapt up by 6 years and I didn’t feel the notice given was enough to allow me to “save” extra funds - there’s so many nuances and complications in this issue and many WASPI women, including me, feel “cheated”

This
Same here

Born in 1956. Another who received no notification, I think I first heard through word of mouth that the age had increased but didn't know what the age would be.
I too think the sneering about 'everyone should have known' was offensive and unnecessary. Like many, I had a very busy life, have never been a newspaper reader and not much of a TV watcher (which is apparently where the change was announced?)
I agree that there should be parity for men and women, but that it should have been a slight increase in women's pension age and a lowering of men's, to align them.
It is the underhanded mis-selling of the pension I have issue with and the suffering for so many. I was fortunate enough to have a small company pension I was able to access and get out of the rat-race before the current retirement age.
I feel sorry for those who will have to wait even longer, even though apparently life expectancy has now lowered.

Chardy

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?

Post of the day!

And I agree with Doodledog's response to Chardy's post. Talk about schadenfreude!

1956 and like many I knew it was changing but couldn’t afford to save enough to tide me over the 6 years missing pension in the time we were given.

Born in 1954, received no letter from DWP. I consider myself to be fairly well informed and DH to be extremely well informed.
I don’t appreciate being sneered at either.

Congratulations WASPI! They demonstrate the sheer determination and resilience of 50s born women, of which I am one. I had to wait 6 years for my pension, with no prior notification. Women of our age had to fight for equality and justice throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s and we have continued that fight with the same dogged determination. The DWP will certainly not make the same mistake again; any pension age increase will be properly notified in the future.

Are we likely to be compensated in any way it is it enough that it shouldn't happen again?

Interesting how three members can change the tone of a thread. It would be better in my opinion to completely ignore rude and offensive comments so the rest of us can carry on considering and discussing the original post rather than giving them the satisfaction of knowing they have caused offence.

As a war baby I was not affected by the changes to the rules and am fairly ignorant of the ins and outs. I retired at 66 but was at home as a carer for two decades and It has though always seemed unfair to me that men should have to work 5 years longer than women but there are men who sit at desks all their working lives and women worn into the ground working while caring for the younger and older generations. It just isn’t possible to have a fair system but changes should have been more gradual and properly communicated.

Jackiest

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.

I was aware of the first change in age, but not the second. I also was not personally informed, although I was one of the earlier people affected I think (born January 1952).
My pension was delayed for a relatively short time, but a friend born three months later had her pension delayed for several years longer. So although I think that the delay was unfair, I was much luckier than many.
But in the grand scheme of things women have been getting their state pensions earlier than men for a long time so levelling things up between the sexes was overdue. It is unfortunate that the changes were imposed over such a short time scale, leading to unfairness between women of very similar ages.
If it had been thought through more carefully in the first place and handled better (i.e. people were personally warned much earlier) it could have been introduced much more gradually. The introduction of the second delay was just a kick in the teeth for all of us.

As the OP I posted this news expecting constructive comments, not smug responses of: They should have checked their pensions! A couple of key points (some of which have been raised above) : the Pensions Act of 1995 was not subject to significant reporting. We had no social media in the 1990s and I challenge anyone to show me a front page headline of that time saying: Women to work longer before State Pension eligibility. There would have been a reaction! It started to become common knowledge 14 years later when the government finally got round to sending some letters to women. Then the Government introduced a second pension age change in 2011, pushing the eligibility age for women back further! So herein lies the rub: It is now proven that large swathes of women did not receive a letter of notification. Women have had little time to save for the extra years they were now expected to work. Many women lost their jobs in their 50s (redundancy, ill health and caring roles). They were totally unaware their state pension would not kick in at 60, as they had been led to believe all their working life. This has led to significant hardship.

The only notification I remember receiving many years ago said I'd retire at 64 and a half. Meanwhile the sliding scale must have changed as I finally got my pension 3 weeks before my 66th birthday! I had other private pensions but they were not enough to live on without the state pension so as a divorcee I had no choice but to continue working. I was lucky to be well enough to work and I still do some casual work since retirement partly to stay in touch with former colleagues, but mainly for the money. I feel angry for those who were less fortunate and suffered a great injustice!

I often worked on part-time contracts and by the time I had a full-time permanent job there was little time to save extra. However I did take out a additional contract through my pension provider and paid in as much as was allowed. In the end my private pension is only enough to pay my council tax, but it was the best I could do.
If we had been properly notified at an earlier date many of us could have prepared ourselves better.

I was born in 1955 and did not receive any notification abut the increase in pension age from the DWP. I only knew from watching the news on tv and looking at news websites that I was going to wait longer for my pension. I can believe that some women did not know about it until the last minute.