Jonesy3 wrote: March 22nd, 2024, 3:01 pm
CathedralCounty wrote: March 22nd, 2024, 2:16 pm
I knew these changes were happening way back 1995 as a teenage boy so do find it hard to believe that many of these women couldn't have found out (especially as most seem to be fairly intelligent women) BUT the finding is they
are 'owed' compo - should it be paid out? For me its about
priorities should we really be paying £1000 each to people most/many of whom don't need it and a large % of whom
would have been informed by letter of the changes?
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/ ... spi-ruling
You miss the point entirely. The changes proposed in 1995 were meant to be phased in gradually until 2020.
The coalition government then moved the goalposts in 2011 and brought the changes forward to 2018.
Many women born in the 1950s had little or no notice of this. The official report has agreed that many were not informed at all of the 2011 decision.
If you’ve paid NI all your life only to find out at the last minute that you have to wait your pension then I think recompense is in order.
I don't miss the point and I deliberately capitalised the 'BUT' - my point was should the government pay out billions to these women? (whether or not the decision that these women were 'owed' compo was correct) not mutually exclusive I know but there are a lot more priorities on the list - for me I think [sadly] both main parties will cave and offer a bride to this WASPI cohort to try to get their votes - so a nice holiday for a load of retirees then - good for them but the money could be put to far better use.
Regardless of whether individual letters were sent you’d have to have been living under a rock not to know these changes were happening (the BBC interviewed a retired head teacher - these aren’t thick people! I get *some* women may genuinely not have known but in all conscience how many could genuinely say they did not know even if belatedly) - even if we take the absolute worst case
7 years notice isn’t long to re plan for retirement but it’s still 7 whole years and is not 'last minute' and the 'paid in all your life' is moot because while those contributions theoretically guarantee a pension they do not guarantee a retirement age (i.e., I started paying NI in a part time job back in the late 1990's when the retirement age was fixed at 65 - its now changed to be
at least 68 for me which has been well communicated but not by any individual letter/email/text annoying its changing as I have to wait for at least 3 more years to get my state pension but I can't & won't claim I don't know about it).