WASPI Campaign .... State Pensions

mgdavid

As I remind people now and then, judicious use of one's Ignore List reaps benefits....

jem16

Well I was ignoring this thread but after just reading the "new" Waspi ask, I had to post this;

MEETING WITH ROS ALTMANN
WASPI confirmed their position :

They agreed with equalisation of the State Pension age
They were not seeking to reverse the State Pensions Acts of 1995 and 2011
They were not seeking a means tested solution but a solution for all the women
They wanted transitional arrangements not life-long arrangements

Baroness Altmann expressed a desire to find a way to help the 1950’s women and reminded them of all her work in 2011, but both she and Minister Vara claimed that there was no money available at the moment.

WASPI briefly mentioned 4 options that have already been discussed in the public domain and circulated by local group co-ordinators:

1. Bridging pension – backdated to age 60 until SPA: 70% now (backdated) + 30% more at SPA, not means-tested
2. Reduced pension (backdated) until SPA – then full pension – which is basically the same as 70/30, but could be different percentages. Not means-tested
3. Pension payment (backdated) based on current JSA rates until SPA. Not means-tested and not subject to any ‘JSA conditions’ (as it is a pension payment). £ 73 p.w. backdated to 60 and until SPA.
4. Reduced pension for life before. However, WASPI pointed out that this is not transitional and therefore does not correspond with the specifics of WASPI campaign or the purpose of APPG.

Baroness Altmann expressed a desire to ascertain the views of all women in a more systematic way but regretted that the DWP did not have the available funds to carry out this work themselves.
WASPI agreed to explore with the APPG ways to conduct this survey on favoured options.

So basically - don't want 1995 or 2011 repealed but just for them they want pension at age 60 as per Options 1 to 3 despite denying this all along.

So nothing will happen as we've said all along.

Malthusian

Baroness Altmann expressed a desire to find a way to help the 1950’s women and reminded them of all her work in 2011, but both she and Minister Vara claimed that there was no money available at the moment.

I could have sworn I saw a bus driving down the road saying "We send £350 trillion a week to the EU. Let's give money to able-bodied working age women who want to retire seven years earlier than men instead."

jamesd

Pennylane wrote: »

BIg turnout of WASPI women today at Westminster.

The turnout was reported to be 2,000 people. Not bad for a London outing with some political action thrown in. Apparently the people were at times chanting 'we paid in, you pay out'. Of course that's exactly what the government plans to do, at the relevant state pension ages, but under the new rules that will normally result in women getting higher state pensions than if the WASPI campaign succeeded in getting pensions backdated to before the flat rate state pension system started.

I'm not sure that WASPI has explained to supporters that getting what WASPI wants will usually result in a lower state pension. I assume not.

jamesd

jem16 wrote: »

So basically - don't want 1995 or 2011 repealed but just for them they want pension at age 60 as per Options 1 to 3 despite denying this all along.

And of course "not means tested" for all of the options they want, making it clear that all the talk about women in need is lying to try to garner sympathy for getting early state pensions for women not in financial need.

DancingBadger wrote: »

If no-one responds or reacts to Pennylane's posts the thread will die a natural death, although it will probably appear on a regular basis for a while due to 'bumping' by followers of the cause.

It's a useful way of making it clear that there is not a lot of support for the campaign, with most here disagreeing.

mystic_trev

jamesd wrote: »

It's a useful way of making it clear that there is not a lot of support for the campaign, with most here disagreeing.

It dosn't matter how much support they've got, the campaign's going to fail - end of!

Goldiegirl

According to Facebook, they are going to close the Facebook pages at 4pm today, unless they can get an 'admin' rota sorted out.


Reading some of the posts, there is suspicion that the founders have fallen out with each other, and want different things

colsten

Goldiegirl wrote: »

Reading some of the posts, there is suspicion that the founders have fallen out with each other, and want different things

There is quite a bit of evidence on Twitter for a major fallout between the campaign founders. [STRIKE]One of them[/STRIKE] One of the WASPI supporters tweeted today last week my MP arranged a room for cofounders to sort out differences two didn't show ..no respect

Pollycat

colsten wrote: »

There is quite a bit of evidence on Twitter for a major fallout between the campaign founders. One of them tweeted today last week my MP arranged a room for cofounders to sort out differences two didn't show ..no respect

Maybe the two who didn't show didn't want to sort out their 'differences' - or maybe they were so confused about what they really wanted they turned up at the wrong room at the wrong time on the wrong day.

dunstonh

Ros Altmann has criticised WASPI. Mostly along the same lines used here by most of the forum posters.

Speaking at a dinner last night, Altmann said the group's orginal demand to put women affected by changes back in the same position as before the reforms were not realistic and did not help the campaign.

‘I’ll be frank with you, it has been really unhelpful, exceedingly unhelpful, that the [initial] demands made were to take women back to the age of 60. The cost of that is just off the scale and most people thought that was so unreasonable that it made it very difficult for me to say “well actually let’s try and find something that will work”,’ Altmann said.

She said it would be even harder now for anything to be achieved in light of the Brexit vote.