WASPI Campaign .... State Pensions

GibbsRule_No3

Just happened to turn the TV on this morning. Not sure if it is anew programme or a repeat. Blurb on my drop down menu does say "new, live edition".

molerat

Watching it now.
"No way did I know my SP age had changed before 2012"

Jackieboy

molerat wrote: »

Watching it now.
"No way did I know my SP age had changed before 2012"

And people say that without a shred of embarrassment!

JezR

There was very little press coverage of the drop in pension age for women in 1940. But there was a war on.

To pay for that, it was introduced at the same time that women had to pay more national insurance per week than men.

Gers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk

I offer no comment.

woolly_wombat

Gers wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk

I offer no comment.

Was this the article you meant to link to?:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37620400

Extract:
Baroness Altmann told the BBC's Rip Off Britain: Live programme that the government failed in its attempt to communicate many years ago with the women who were affected.

"It perhaps misled them, or lulled them into a false sense of security, and if they did believe that their state pension age was 60, partly that was because the government led them to believe that," she said.

The comments are very different from those made when she was the pensions minister when she insisted that letters sent to women informing them of changes to their state pension age were clear.

She now says she "believed what officials were telling me".

Mr Webb, who was pensions minister during the coalition government, said: "Given that we now know that the Department for Work and Pensions undertook surveys in the early 2000s which showed a significant minority of women were not aware of the 1995 Act timetable, it is surprising that previous administrations did not act upon that information at that time and take action to improve awareness of the changes."

It's often revealing to see what former ministers have to say once they are released from the shackles of office!

JezR

I see that both Steve Webb and Ros Altmann have been trying to shift blame from themselves onto their officials for such things as the structure of the 2011 Pension Act etc. Unfortunately for them the deal is as a Minster that you carry the can, not the officials.

As Jim Hacker said: "In industry if you screw things up you get the boot; in the civil service if you screw things up I get the boot.”

The surveys in the early 2000s led to the unprompted pension forecasts and advertising campaign in 2004 IIRC.

Malthusian

Altmann's pronouncements in government only serve to make her a hypocrite as well as a bandwagon jumper. If she truly believed whatever officials told her in government and then abruptly flipped to believing whatever WASPI2 told her out of government then she is a brainless invertebrate, and I know perfectly well she isn't.

There is no significant minority. As we've seen in this thread, hairdressers, teachers and housewives all knew the state pension age was going up. A small band of highly media-savvy women are claiming they had no idea. Hmm.

jem16

woolly_wombat wrote: »

Was this the article you meant to link to?:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37620400

Extract:
Baroness Altmann told the BBC's Rip Off Britain: Live programme that the government failed in its attempt to communicate many years ago with the women who were affected.

"It perhaps misled them, or lulled them into a false sense of security, and if they did believe that their state pension age was 60, partly that was because the government led them to believe that," she said.

On the programme she mentioned letters being sent out which didn't say their state pension age was changing. No mention of the fact that enclosed with the letters was a booklet which did explain that the state pension age was rising.

The comments are very different from those made when she was the pensions minister when she insisted that letters sent to women informing them of changes to their state pension age were clear.

She now says she "believed what officials were telling me".

Probably because she had seen the actual letters and booklets herself when they were given to her. Or is she now saying she didn't bother to read them?

Mr Webb, who was pensions minister during the coalition government, said: "Given that we now know that the Department for Work and Pensions undertook surveys in the early 2000s which showed a significant minority of women were not aware of the 1995 Act timetable, it is surprising that previous administrations did not act upon that information at that time and take action to improve awareness of the changes."

Steve Webb has also said that MPs were not fully briefed when the 2011 Act was going through Parliament. Yet Hansard records show that all the same questions being asked now we're fully discussed at the time. In fact this was what led to the 6 months concession as amendments were proposed.

It's often revealing to see what former ministers have to say once they are released from the shackles of office!

Isn't it just. One wonders what their motives are now?

Pennylane

Talk about two-faced. can't stand Altmann.