WASPI Campaign .... State Pensions

seven-day-weekend

merrydance wrote: »

Yes looks like I'll have to just suck it up. I really do feel sorry for younger women who are going to have to wait even longer. Not everyone has the means to pay into a private pension.
Yes I have a job, and yes I had to move offices. Causing a lot of extra travel, when I am not quite up to scratch health wise. I was talking about the benefit is it DLA? that you can claim while you are working. Not sure, never claimed anything before.

Thae same length of time as the men.

merrydance

And young men too

mark1959

And the young women are likely to live longer than the young men, thus drawing more pension. That's not fair.Let's reduce the retirement age for men. :beer:

Pollycat

merrydance wrote: »

Yes Pollycat I agree. But to make it fair, everybody who got their state pension at age 60 since 1995 should have it frozen for 6 years to make it fair for the ones not getting it.

That is the most ridiculous suggestion I've ever read. :rotfl:

merrydance wrote: »

I just think it should me more staggered than it is at present. Reading the benefits board, you have to be really ill or disabled to pass any test for benefits, I suppose I could try.

It has been staggered since 1995.
Lordy! Lordy! How staggered do you think it should be?

Do not muddy the waters between spa & eligibility to benefits.

merrydance

I think a maximum of a 4 year wait would be fairer. I could probably last that long at my job. My hubby and I have been looking into him claiming pension credit for me, I think that might work for us.

Pollycat

merrydance wrote: »

I think a maximum of a 4 year wait would be fairer. I could probably last that long at my job. My hubby and I have been looking into him claiming pension credit for me, I think that might work for us.

It won't be claiming pension credit for you, it will be a joint claim.

Put your details into this calculator to see if you are eligible:
https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator

AnotherJoe

merrydance wrote: »

Yes Pollycat I agree. But to make it fair, everybody who got their state pension at age 60 since 1995 should have it frozen for 6 years to make it fair for the ones not getting it.

Why not make it even fairer, 3% of those getting pension age 60 since 1995 should be euthanised to make up for those who will die before taking up their pensions.

.

merrydance

Well a sort of result. Just come back from the Citizens Advice Bureau, apparently we can try and claim AA for my husband (as he has a long term lung condition). I can try and claim carers allowance. Never thought of this, glad we went. No guarantee we will get it but worth a try.

PensionTech

I think a maximum of a 4 year wait would be fairer.

If that were the case, women's pension age would never increase to more than 64, and it would never equalise with men's pension age of 65 - let alone increase to take account of an ageing society with lower mortality.

I think you might be more understanding of the changes if you look at them from another perspective. Rather than "I have to wait 6 more years for my pension", consider what happened, in the order and actual timeframe of when it happened.

1995: Due to equality legislation, the government legislates to equalise pension ages for women and men (having announced the intention to do so two years earlier). This means increasing women's pension age to 65. They recognise that this is a big change and people may need to make extra provisions for themselves, so they delay the changes for 15 years. They also recognise that it would be unfair to have a "cliff edge" whereby women born on, say, 5 April 1950 have a state pension age of 60 but women born one day later on 6 April 1950 have a state pension age of 65. They therefore plan to stagger the increase in pension age so that state pension age increases for women born from 6 April 1950 onwards by one month every month. So:

• a woman born on 6 April 1950 will have a state pension age of 60 years and 1 month;
• a woman born a month later on 6 May 1950 will have a state pension age of 60 years and 2 months; et cetera.

This means that women born between 6 April 1950 and 6 April 1955 will have a state pension age of somewhere between 60 and 65, depending on their birth date, and women born after 1955 will have a state pension age of 65.

(1993 - 2004: The changes are covered repeatedly in newspapers, advertising features in women's magazines, direct mailings targeted at women, state pension forecast letters, a "Women's Pensions Pack" available from the DWP on request, on TV, and via an online interactive state pension age calculator.)

(2004 - 2006: The DWP issues 16 million state pension forecasts with accompanying leaflets that set out the changes to state pension age.)

2007: In response to rising longevity, the (next) government legislates to increase state pension age from 65 to 68. The rise to 66 will take place between 2024-2026 (affecting men and women born in 1959 onwards), the rise to 67 will take place between 2034-2036 (affecting men and women born in 1968 onwards), and the rise to 28 will take place between 2044 to 2046 (affecting men and women born in 1977 onwards).

(2009 - 2011: The DWP issues 1.2 million personalised letters specifically to women born between 1950 and 1953 reminding them of their exact state pension age.)

2010: The state pension age begins to rise for women.

2010: The (next again) government lays out plans, as promised in its manifesto, to increase women's pension age from 60 to 65 more quickly than originally planned, reaching equalisation by 2018, rather than 2020. It also plans to then increase men and women's pension ages from 65 to 66 more quickly, by (April) 2020 rather than 2026.

2011: Following campaigns and opposition, the government revises the plan to raise the pension age from 65 to 66 so that it will be complete by October 2020 rather than April 2020, meaning that nobody's pension age will be delayed for more than 18 months beyond what it would have been under the 1995 schedule. The revised plans mean that women born between April and December 1953 will see their pension age increase by three months every month - so:

• women born on 6 March 1953 will still have a state pension age of 63;
• women born on 6 April 1953 will now have a state pension age of 63 and 3 months;
• women born on 6 May 1953 will have a state pension age of 63 and 6 months;
• et cetera up to women born on 6 November 1953 who will have a state pension age of 65.

Then, state pension age will again increase by one month every month - so:

• men and women born on 6 December 1953 will have a state pension age of 65 and 3 months;
• men and women born on 6 January 1954 will have a state pension age of 65 and 4 months;
• men and women born on 6 February 1954 will have a state pension age of 65 and 5 months;
• all the way up to men and women born on 6 October 1954 whose pension age will be 66.

(2012: The DWP issues another 1.3 million personalised letters to people born between 1953 and 1955 to inform them of their state pension ages under the new timetable.)

(2012: Research by the DWP shows that while many women approaching pension age in the next 10 years don't know their exact pension age off the top of their heads - which is perhaps understandable given that for most people it is not an exact round age - only 6% believe it is actually age 60. This is important: almost all women know, even vaguely, that it is not age 60.)

(2012 - 2013: The DWP issues a final batch of 4.5 million personalised letters to people born between 1955 and 1960 to inform them of their state pension ages under the new timetable.)

So it's women born between 1953 and 1955 who have been hit twice because of the 2011 Act, and many here are sympathetic to that (but only to the limit of up to 18 months actually added on by that Act), but otherwise the changes have been introduced in as fair a way as possible that ensures equality of entitlement between men and women, leaves nobody with a "cliff edge" by introducing it gradually, and almost everyone with plenty of time and notice to prepare for a later retirement.

Just come back from the Citizens Advice Bureau, apparently we can try and claim AA for my husband (as he has a long term lung condition). I can try and claim carers allowance. Never thought of this, glad we went. No guarantee we will get it but worth a try.

Good for you; I hope it helps.

Silvertabby

PensionTech - Good post. Plus, you can add that the 1995 changes in particular were chewed over at length by women in the workplace, in the pub, at the hairdressers, in the shops etc, etc. I know - I'm a 1950s woman and I was there.