WASPI ‘victory’

GrubbyGirl_2

I have absolutely no sympathy for WASPI women and that's me saying that as one myself.  You'd have had to have been a hobbit in the 90s to not know that the age was rising.  What makes it worse for me is that I only fall into the WASPI category by 6 weeks so I had 25 years notice this was going to happen.  I think the whole issue is ridiculous.  Equality is very important, but women have no right to be treated equally for only those things that is beneficial to women and perpetuate those inequalities that are disadvantageous. The government should be spending money on solving wage disparity not paying compensation for ridiculous claims such as this.  If I get anything I will be donating it to my local food bank to help those that really need it

Flugelhorn

GrubbyGirl_2 said:

I have absolutely no sympathy for WASPI women and that's me saying that as one myself.  You'd have had to have been a hobbit in the 90s to not know that the age was rising.  What makes it worse for me is that I only fall into the WASPI category by 6 weeks so I had 25 years notice this was going to happen.  I think the whole issue is ridiculous.  Equality is very important, but women have no right to be treated equally for only those things that is beneficial to women and perpetuate those inequalities that are disadvantageous. The government should be spending money on solving wage disparity not paying compensation for ridiculous claims such as this.  If I get anything I will be donating it to my local food bank to help those that really need it

I agree - I certainly knew about it in the 90s and remember thinking that I wasn't at all surprised as really it should have been the same age for men and women way before then.  If anything the news made me sort out my pensions (overdid though but that is another story) to ensure that I could retire at 60. 

Have found WASPI campaigners elsewhere to be over zealous failing to accept (even when shown evidence of newspaper articles from the 90s) that anyone could have possibly known

Silvertabby

I bumped into an ex colleague just before Covid.  I was surprised to see that she was wearing a WASPE supporters badge.  She was equally surprised to learn that I was not a member.  

I pointed out that she certainly knew about the changes at least as far back as 2000/2001, because that's when we both attended training courses which included how the increases, from 2010 onwards, would affect how we applied GMP to pension records.

She said that didn't count - WASPE  had told her that only individual letters did, and that everyone had to say that they didn't get a letter/didn't know or they wouldn't get their pensions backdated to 60.

P.S.  Before anyone asks - I didn't join the pensions industry until after I retired from the RAF, a few years after the mid 1990s announcements.

jem16

Silvertabby said:

I pointed out that she certainly knew about the changes at least as far back as 2000/2001, because that's when we both attended training courses which included how the increases, from 2010 onwards, would affect how we applied GMP to pension records.

She said that didn't count - WASPE  had told her that only individual letters did, and that everyone had to say that they didn't get a letter/didn't know or they wouldn't get their pensions backdated to 60.

That has been WASPI’s biggest problem and it’s now coming back to bite them after the JR and then the PHSO only finding a short period of maladministration. 

Pollycat

Silvertabby said:

I bumped into an ex colleague just before Covid.  I was surprised to see that she was wearing a WASPE supporters badge.  She was equally surprised to learn that I was not a member.  

I pointed out that she certainly knew about the changes at least as far back as 2000/2001, because that's when we both attended training courses which included how the increases, from 2010 onwards, would affect how we applied GMP to pension records.

She said that didn't count - WASPE  had told her that only individual letters did, and that everyone had to say that they didn't get a letter/didn't know or they wouldn't get their pensions backdated to 60.

P.S.  Before anyone asks - I didn't join the pensions industry until after I retired from the RAF, a few years after the mid 1990s announcements.

Shockingly duplicitous.

I watched the parliamentary debates - supported I believe by Mhairi Black - where various MPs stood up and recounted stories of women in their consistency (some of whom were less than honest about their situation).

I found this article from 2017:
Mhairi Black: 'I am absolutely scunnered' that we're still debating women's pension inequality (inews.co.uk)

The same point was brought by Mhairi Black, who said that the regular debates on state pension age for women now feel “almost scripted.”

“We’ve heard the argument from the Government that ‘well, the 95 act gave the 15 years notice, that’s exactly what the Turner Commission recommended, so what is the problem?’ Well let me say it as clear as possible: it was that nobody knew about these changes. The first letters weren’t sent out until 2009, that’s 14 years after the changes,” explained Black.

Well, I need to tell Ms Black that there are some women (probably a lot and probably included some WASPI supporters) who DID know about these changes.

Some women didn't need to be sent a letter to understand the implications of what was being discussed widely.

p00hsticks

Silvertabby said:

She said that didn't count - WASPE  had told her that only individual letters did, and that everyone had to say that they didn't get a letter/didn't know or they wouldn't get their pensions backdated to 60.

By that criteria, perhaps any compo should be conditional on people being able to produce their original individually addressed letters telling them that they would reach State Pension Age at the age of 60.....

Malthusian

Mhairi Black said publicly that her position on WASPI consists entirely of "my mum told me to vote for this". I am not exaggerating.
 https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/mhairi-black-and-jess-phillips-protest-state-penious-inequality-outside-parliament_uk_57738038e4b02d11d8d3749b

My mum’s a WASPI woman and she would kill me if I didn’t come out

Remember, this is an elected representative of a country of 70 million. Vox matri vox dei!

Pollycat

Is she (Black) still supporting WASPI?
I've not seen her name linked with them for a while.

Jonty6262

Pollycat said:

Is she (Black) still supporting WASPI?
I've not seen her name linked with them for a while.

Martin also very much supported them too, I think he still does

Silvertabby

Jonty6262 said:

Pollycat said:

Is she (Black) still supporting WASPI?
I've not seen her name linked with them for a while.

Martin also very much supported them too, I think he still does

I don't normally watch his tv programmes, but made an exception for the recent pensions special, just so see how many things he could get wrong (answer: several).  And, yes, it was clear that he still supports the WASPEs.