Sign the Petition for Womens state pension age going up unfair

Malthusian

Paul Lewis is full of exclamation marks and I wouldn't believe a word he says.

I have read a number of his articles and my overriding impression is that he says whatever will get him the most attention, and measures truth by the number of people that ring up his radio show to tell him how marvellous he is. Like many pompous radio presenters he believes that his purpose is not to inform but to "drive the agenda".

JezR

Newspapers were only just coming online in 1995 with The Daily Telegraph having been first in Nov 1994. Most have not loaded in back stories or charge for archive search. An exception is The Independent, where a quick and simple google search found the following, which cover or mention the age change:

Nov 1993: Pension age for women will rise to 65
April 1995: Equal retirement age agreed
July 1995: Nearly four years after Robert Maxwell's death, the Pension Bill he spawned is about to become law. What does it mean for you?
Dec 1995: 1995 has seriously hurt your pension
March 1997: THE PENSIONS ACT AT A GLANCE
Sept 2002: Government urged to raise age of retirement to 70
Nov 2004: Majority of women unaware of plan to raise pension age
Dec 2005: Making Sense of the (Pensions) Report

Be interesting to see what a proper cuttings service could come up with.

Goldiegirl

bmm78 wrote: »

When they did it, they then did not tell anyone

That is utter rubbish. Paul Lewis should be ashamed of himself for allowing such tosh to come out of his mouth

PensionTech

Be interesting to see what a proper cuttings service could come up with.

Jo Cumbo of the Financial Times (I strongly recommend her Twitter feed) did some research into this very thing:

Josephine Cumbo 18 Dec 2015
I've done an archive search of National Newspapers 1994-1996 using search terms "women, state, pension age and 65). 214 articles returned.
Articles in terms of number of listings: Times (57); FT (48), Independent (38); Guardian (34) Observer (19) and Daily Mirror (4) London Evening Standard (4); Sunday Mirror (2) and Daily Mail (1)
170 articles were categorised as "political/general news" by the archive. This is just National Newspaper, not regional or magazines.

Also, from Ros Altmann's address to the Lords on 3 December 2015:

State pension estimates, issued to individuals on request, made the 1995 changes clear. The DWP’s state pension estimates have been providing individuals with their most up-to-date state pension age since 1995. The department does not have figures before April 2000, but since then it has issued more than 11.5 million personalised state pension statements to people who requested them. We continue, as noble Lords have said, to encourage people to request one as part of our ongoing communications.

To raise further awareness of the state pension age equalisation under the Pensions Act 1995, in July 1995 the department issued leaflet EQP1a, Equality in State Pension Age: A Summary of Changes, to advise the general public on the changes. The DWP ran a pensions education campaign in 2004, which included informing people of the future equalisation of state pension age. That campaign included: advertising features in the press and women’s magazines; a “women’s pensions pack” containing leaflets for women about changes in state pension age, made available through the Pension Service; direct mailings targeted specifically at women, highlighting that women’s state pension age is changing; sending state pension forecast letters with leaflets explaining the changes to women’s state pension age to those who requested them; and developing an interactive state pension date/age calculator facility on the Pension Service website.

A 2004 DWP report, Public Awareness of State Pension Age Equalisation, reported its survey findings that 73% of those aged 45 to 54 at that time—in 2004—were aware of the changes to women’s state pension age. In addition to this, all those affected by the 1995 Act changes were sent letters from April 2009 to March 2011 using the address details we had—I admit that we may not have details for everybody, but what else could we do? It is therefore difficult for the Government to accept that people did not know that their state pension age has risen from 60, and it is not accurate to try to suggest that this is a six-year rise. The change is a maximum of one and half years.

molerat

Pollycat wrote: »

However, it seems at least one poster believes that to not expect any further changes to the SPA I'd been aware of since 1995 was "staggeringly presumptious or short-sighted or illogical". :rotfl:

I would tend to agree with them. Nothing, especially governmental, is set in stone until it has actually happened and can be changed at a whim. I will not be holding my breath until I actually see the colour of the money in my bank account in 2019 (maybe)

Pollycat

molerat wrote: »

I would tend to agree with them. Nothing, especially governmental, is set in stone until it has actually happened and can be changed at a whim. I will not be holding my breath until I actually see the colour of the money in my bank account in 2019 (maybe)

That's maybe because we're now used to negative impact changes imposed on us by the Government.

I don't believe back in 1995 that that was the case.

And I'm not the only person to think that having been hit by one change in 1995, I would have been caught up in yet another one 16 years later!

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Personally, if I had taken early retirement in 2003, given the lead in times to the 1995 changes, my risk analysis would have suggested that any further changes to the state pension age wouldn't affect the date that had already been advised to me at that point.

missbiggles1

molerat wrote: »

I would tend to agree with them. Nothing, especially governmental, is set in stone until it has actually happened and can be changed at a whim. I will not be holding my breath until I actually see the colour of the money in my bank account in 2019 (maybe)

I have a good friend who insists that she won't get any SRP at all when she reaches SRA in 2020. Whilst I can see the reasoning behind this I definitely disagree. The unfortunate thing is she's making all sorts of decisions regarding her private pension based on this eventuality, things which she'll be unable to undo and which, when she gets her SRP, she will definitely regret.

enthusiasticsaver

missbiggles1 wrote: »

I have a good friend who insists that she won't get any SRP at all when she reaches SRA in 2020. Whilst I can see the reasoning behind this I definitely disagree. The unfortunate thing is she's making all sorts of decisions regarding her private pension based on this eventuality, things which she'll be unable to undo and which, when she gets her SRP, she will definitely regret.

I can see where your friend is coming from. I have had my pension age moved twice and it now stands at 66 in 2026. As this is past when I want to retire - I intend going at 60 I have taken the view I will not rely on the state pension at all. My OH has taken the same view and we have overpaid into our occupational pensions and saved in stocks and shares isas, other investments. The difference between us and your friend though is I know we will get a state pension and we have forecasts but these may change in 10 years time so I ignore them for the most part.


Yes, I daresay that when we do eventually get our state pensions, a lot will be swallowed in tax but in what other ways do you think your friend will regret making her own financial plans for her retirement rather than relying on the government of the day which keeps moving the goalposts?


We both have our state pension forecasts and it looks like my GMP with Barclays (not my main pension) will tail off anyway when my state pension kicks in so I think that will resolve my tax issue. My OH will be another story but he has 8 years between his retirement and SRA to come up with a tax efficient solution to this.

Nick_C

I would also support the wisdom of not assuming the SRP will provide for you. My SRA should have been 2022, it will now be 2023. I started planning for retirement in 1979, and I didn't think the SRP would still be around as a contributory benefit when I hit retirement age. In my youth, I naively thought that governments would deal with the pensions crisis in the following 40 years, and only give SRP to people who really needed it.

I retired at 55. I'm looking forward to getting my SRP though, as even after tax it should pay for a decent extra holiday for my partner and I.

Start planning for retirement early, and diversify your investments, and I can't see that you can go far wrong.

xylophone

I have a good friend who insists that she won't get any SRP at all when she reaches SRA in 2020.

Has she obtained a statement yet? If not, you might wish to suggest she does so? https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-statement

(Trademark question mark because, of course, you might not wish to make such a suggestion.....):) https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5395417 post 42....