MSE Guest Comment: WASPI campaign responds to Pensions Minister's advice to take...

I am 62 and off to College in September for the first time since 1974 to undertake a TEFL course perhaps more positive then sitting on my backside dripping life is unfair when it isn't in this case.

Jane Cowley should have taken the trouble to read what was actually said in Hansard instead of making WASPI look foolish: State Pension Age for Women on 5 July 2017.

Apprenticeships were part of measures to help those aged 45 and up back into work, not specifically for women a few years from their state pension age:

"Guy Opperman

No, I will not. It is not the Government’s position that we will make further concessions by the 1995 or 2011 Acts. The fundamental point—at this point I really wish to address the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South—is that the Government have done a massive amount on a progressive basis to get people back into employment or retraining in their pre-pension years.

First, we created, and we have now extended, a network of older claimant champions in all 34 Jobcentre Plus districts in the country. The champions work with Jobcentre work coaches to provide advice and best practice on skills provision, digital and social support and job-search support, which leads into the “Fuller Working Lives” strategy issued by the Government on a cross-Government basis in February this year.

Secondly, we have committed massively to lifelong learning. The reality is that more than 200,000 people aged over 60 have entered further education since 2014-15. [Interruption.]

Sir Edward Leigh (in the Chair)

Order. Everybody else was heard in silence, so let us please listen to the Minister.

Guy Opperman

Thirdly, we have also extended apprenticeship opportunities—one of the best routes into skilled employment—for people of all ages and gender. For example, in England in 2014 to 2015, 12% of those starting apprenticeships were aged over 45.

Carolyn Harris

Will the Minister give way?

Guy Opperman

I am going to set out these matters; please bear with me. In the 2017 Budget, the Chancellor allocated £5 million to increase the number of returnship schemes. We are working with employers across the public and private sectors to understand how returners can be supported back into permanent employment, building on successful examples run by companies such as Centrica.

I realise it is not going down well, but the point I am trying to make is that the Government are actually doing a significant amount to address the individual difficulties for those persons attempting to enter the labour market. Last year, the Government appointed Andy Briggs, CEO of Aviva, as the dedicated business champion for older workers, to spearhead work with employers on a business-to-business basis. I met Mr Briggs ​two days ago. He is clearly passionate about his mission to persuade employers to increase the number of older workers they employ by 12% by 2022."

It was actually the Labour MP Graham Jones who may have mis-heard what was said in the background noise who asked whether it was about women close to state pension age:

"Graham Jones

On a point of order, Sir Edward. Did the Minister just say that women aged 64 could go on an apprenticeship course? I could not hear because of the noise. Perhaps he could clarify that"

MSE should be telling people about the practical help that was offered to women in financial need instead of helping her to spread that sort of thing. Unless MSE itself wants to favour WASPIs advocacy of rank gender discrimination - twins having a six year difference in state pension initial benefits and eight years in total because the male twins on average die two years younger than the female - at the expense of declining to tell people in real financial need about the offer by The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Guy Opperman) to help those in financial difficulty:

1. "If individual Members of Parliament have specific cases where they feel their individual constituents are affected by state pension age changes and find themselves in financial hardship, whether they are people who have to reduce their hours because of sickness, disability or caring responsibility, I and the London DWP team will look into those individual cases. As Members pass them on to us, we will do what we can to provide assistance, whether that is understanding of the availability of carer’s allowance, housing benefit, tax credits, income support, employment and support allowance or other benefits."

2. "I accept that we must do all we can to assist everyone affected into retraining and employment, and to provide support if that is not possible. The commitment to provide support is clear, unequivocal and ongoing."

If anyone is in financial hardship I suggest that they consider contacting their MP to accept the offer of assistance from Guy Opperman and the DWP team.

Now, I'm no journalist with ethical standards and journalistic integrity to protect but I managed to read Hansard, see what was said and tell Martin on Twitter the day before this piece about the offer of help last week. Perhaps expecting good journalistic coverage of important topics is asking a lot these days but it'd be nice if MSE appeared to be doing a better job of trying than was done on this occasion.

To be clear, even if we accept that this was an opinion piece, the title falsely asserted that it was the minister: "Guest Comment: WASPI campaign responds to Pensions Minister's advice to take up apprenticeships" (my bold) and I assume that the title - and obligation to verify that it was factually correct - was the work of an MSE employee.

Not telling people about offers of practical help seems to be missing a key part of the mission of this place.

A large number of people being referred by their MPs might also have the useful effect of helping Guy Opperman see areas where he does think that change would be right, since there are undoubtedly many women who are in financial need whose practical and verifiable situations might be more persuasive than WASPI's campaign for a huge amount of money regardless of financial need has been.

If MSE wants something more worthwhile to campaign about, I hope we can agree that being dead two years sooner is a worse outcome than being on working age benefits and maybe MSE might want to try to do something to stop about half of the state pensioner population of this country on average suffering that fate?

Further to my earlier post, I complain that this coverage has breached the MSE Editorial Code by:

A. covering the topic but completely failing to mention the offer of help by the minister when the Editorial Code repeatedly emphasises that the site must put the consumer first

and

B. breached normally accepted ethical standards for journalism by using a title that falsely asserted that a minister had said something on the topic that he in fact had not said.

To be clear, I also recognise that Martin and presumably MSE wish to campaign on this issue and that I probably differ at least in some areas of emphasis on that campaigning. This complaint is expressly NOT about that campaigning, but solely confined to the matters in this complaint. That is, campaigning is great, including when I may disagree, but please try to put the consumer first and maintain good standards of accuracy when doing it.

Paul_Herring wrote: »

We are not opposed to state pension age equalisation. In fact, we are in favour of equal rights (and responsibilities) for men and women. We believe that men and women should retire at the same time. Neither are we calling for the state pension age to revert to 60, and we are not asking for a reversal of any Pension Act.

I thought the whole purpose of GRASPI was for exactly the opposite of those 5 things...

WASPI only want women born in the 1950s to be given State Pension at 60 (backdated). This would not amount to a reversal of the 1995 Pension Act because a woman born 1 January 1960 would, under WASPI's demands, still receive her State Pension at 66, 6 years later than a woman born one day earlier.

"But that's manifestly unfair" you say. Welcome to WASPIland. The rest is just disingenuous.