Ministers still reject Waspi calls

Notepad_Phil

A bit surprised this hasn't been posted yet but the Government's latest decision review is once again a "No".

BBC report at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1jeyn3yxn9o

I thought of adding this at the end of the previous post about this, but thought it might confuse any new readers if they started at the beginning of an eight page thread. But if anyone wants to read that thread then it's at

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6639818/039-waspi-039-women-latest-government-to-review-decision-to-refuse-compensation

Vitor

WASPI often gets framed as “no notice”, which isn’t quite right. The State Pension age change was legislated in 1995, with implementation from 2010, giving many women 15–20 years’ notice of the policy itself. The Ombudsman issue is narrower: delayed and imperfect individual communication by DWP. That’s a procedural failing, not proof that most women were unaware or suffered real financial loss. Compensation still looks a very high bar.

molerat

In the words of Battery Sergeant Major Williams …………………………..

From the BBC news item

McFadden said on Thursday that overall, the evidence suggests that most of those affected would not have read "an unsolicited pensions letter, even if it had been sent earlier".

He also said that those who knew the least about pensions — "the very women who most needed to engage with a letter" — were the least likely to read it.

So sending out those individual letters would have been a waste of time anyway. You can lead a horse to water ……………

Lowtrawler

IMHO, it's all compensation culture. I can clearly remember the discussions and debates about the changes in the mid 1990's. They were on every news channel and in every newspaper. Nobody should be relying on personal notification of changes taking place countrywide. It is the responsibility of an individual to keep themselves informed of state pensions they are relying on. If they choose not to, that's down to them.

artyboy

Shall I start the betting on how long this latest thread lasts?

QrizB

A bit surprised this hasn't been posted yet but the Government's latest decision review is once again a "No".

There was a spot on BBC R4 about it a short time ago. They had someone from WASPI in the studio, born in 1954, who who spoke about how they'd not been paying attention to their pension entitlement so they were surprised when they twigged on (they didn't phrase it quite like that :) ) and how they were going to be speaking to their solicitors about the latest announcement.

Are we going to have another 50 years of this, until they've all shuffled off? I guess it dependson how expensive the solicitors are and how long the money lasts.

SnowMan

Links to the official document on gov.uk

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/government-response-to-parliamentary-and-health-service-ombudsmans-phso-investigation-into-womens-state-pension-age-communications-and-associated

And the earlier response from 2024

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/government-response-to-parliamentary-and-health-service-ombudsman-phso-report

MarkCarnage

If I say 'good' to the latest news that should help close it quickly….

molerat

If anyone deserves compensation it is us, both men and women, who were affected by the 2011 changes many of who had already retired when the rug was pulled out from under our feet with less than 10 years notice and may have actually suffered a loss finding the money to fill that 6 to 18 month gap. Those women are in the WASPE cohort but that lot don't seem to care about that.

dunstonh

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81860237#Comment_81860237

I agree. The 1995 changes were handled fairly and reasonably and trying to unwind those is just opportunistic greed. The 2011 changes, on the other hand, were far too short in notice and application.

WASPE should have focused on 2011 and could well have been more successful if they had.

silverwhistle

As a 70 year old woman I'd say that there is a lot of structural problems with women's pensions - married women's stamp, part time jobs not eligible for pensions, career breaks for child care etc. but not being told about pension age changes is not one of them.

I don't recall how I found out but it was difficult not to know, even if you didn't read newspapers, listen to the radio or watch television. Jokes abounded about what the age would be when you finally retired, you'd tell older friends getting it earlier that they'd be the ones buying drinks at the bar, and so forth.

It probably helped that I've always been single and independent, so my sympathy for ignorance is less than the other issues I mentioned above.