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[Katejo]

From this mornings paper

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3478682/PETER-HITCHENS-pay-right-unless-s-state-pension-course.html

I note that she was told to sell her home. Where is she supposed to live? If I were in that position, it would be crazy. My mortgage is small but to rent a small flat would cost me around £1200 a month, an amount which I couldn't afford on full pay.

[Pennyfarthing]

If she downsizes she can use the cash she makes to live on until she gets her pension. She'd be in a worse position if she didn't have a house to sell.

It's not SO outrageous. A good many of us, myself included, will have to sell up ultimately. 

My pension as a single person won't be enough to maintain the house we live in as a couple.

You make it sound very easy StellaJane.  I have single friends for whom it wouldn't be easy to sell up because they have a network of friends, family and some of them have grandchildren or elderly parents they care for.

Why should women have to sell up the homes they worked hard to buy just because the stupid Government have messed up big time.

[Katejo]

If she downsizes she can use the cash she makes to live on until she gets her pension. She'd be in a worse position if she didn't have a house to sell.

It's not SO outrageous. A good many of us, myself included, will have to sell up ultimately. 

My pension as a single person won't be enough to maintain the house we live in as a couple.

Downsizing yes but the article just said sell up didn't it? Depends on the type of property in question. I imagine that I will have to downsize. My current house isn't big but is a Victorian period terrace so high maintenance for a single income.

[limpy]

If she downsizes she can use the cash she makes to live on until she gets her pension. She'd be in a worse position if she didn't have a house to sell.

It's not SO outrageous. A good many of us, myself included, will have to sell up ultimately. 

Hmm - Patronising springs to mind.
So, she's got to uproot herself from where she lives and incur the expense, inconvenience and misery of moving.
Secure in the knowledge her pension is significantly less than she planned and budgeted for.
Yes she will have budgeted and planned ahead unlike the unimpressive politicians who concoct such schemes.
Seems pretty outrageous to me.

[Hurdity]

I've done it several times over the past few years PF,  It did say how many qualifying years I had,  and how much my pension was expected to be.  But recently,  on the reverse,  it said I would get less than that because I had been contracted out at some stage.  So  I still don't  know for sure what I will get.

Ariadne xx

Any information you've received up to now will have related to the current system Ariadne, so it will be irrelevant when the new system starts.

I'm going to give it a few months for everything to settle down then send for an up to date forecast based on the new regulations.

Under the new system - for women born after 6 April 1953 and for the next ?years ( ie those of us affected by the change in pension age)  you will get two calculations - one based on the new system and the other on the old system and you will get the greater of the two, to ensure you don't lose out. Not sure for how long this will happen but the info will be on the gov website.

I think the main thing about the pension age increase is not that it's increasing - of course it has to - it was the second, accelerated change. The first one was planned 20 years ago and was a gradual change - which was time to plan for. The second one was ridiculous - having seen the difference in pension age from women my age ( the first month of that year) and those born a few months later. Mine was only put back 2 months because I'm in the first group who get the new pension but some born 8 months later have to wait much longer.

I'm lucky I get mine in July at age 63 and 2 months but I feel for the rest of you especially those born over the next couple of years who were accelerated in July 2011.

Hurdity x

[Pennyfarthing]

Life's hard!

It gets worse too. Just think, one day we may have to sell our homes and use that money plus every penny we've ever saved to pay for nursing care.

This is just the start.

Oh dear Stellajane .... What's up?

[Pennyfarthing]

Nothings up. I was just reflecting on all this bleating we're doing and thinking about my mum who's in the last year of her life savings now, having already paid for 4 years of nursing home care, and thinking that realistically this is going to be the fate of many of us.

With regard to this (probably fictitious) woman, one would have to ask why on earth she didn't start making some plans when she got made redundant?  Who seriously expects to walk into another job approaching 60? And self employment always carries risks.

As soon as I got wind of my pension age being put back from 60 to 64 (later 66) we sat down and did some planning. I decided I would retire at 60 anyway (caring responsibilities etc). That meant downsizing and investing the money which I'm now drawing on until I reach 66. What's so difficult?  As I've said, both OH and I anticipate a further downsize when one of us has passed on both for financial and practical reasons .... and then ultimately we'll probably end up having to pay for care of some sort. This is reality - well it is for me anyway.

I wouldn't call it "bleating" at all.  It's happening to thousands and thousands of women and they're trying to get what's rightfully theirs having paid NI all their working lives.

I sympathise about your Mum as my Mum is almost 92.

Maybe it doesn't bother you so much if you lose out on maybe £30,000+ in pension money because you have an OH, but many women don't.  You also speak of savings and some women have very little in the way of savings either.

There are plenty of people who have no money left over TO save or invest after they've paid rent or mortgage, council tax, household bills etc.  Think about women working in shops and cafes let's say who are on the minimum wage.

Also don't forget that thousands of women were never notified that their pension age was being changed or had very little notice of the change meaning they didn't have time to plan. The Dept of W and P have now admitted that they did NOT notify women properly.  I, for example, am meticulous with paperwork and the only letter I ever had from them was a letter thanking me for requesting my state pension age after I'd heard it mentioned on a radio programme. 

Why would you even think the woman featured is fictitious when this campaign is making headlines all over the country and has been debated in Parliament three times now? 

[blossom60]

Check out this thread WASPI.  I know it's in the wrong place but it's worth looking at.

The more people who sign the parliamentary petition the better.  Then the situation might actually be rectified.

http://www.menopausematters.co.uk/forum/index.php/board,8.0.html

[blossom60]

No, I signed it a couple of days ago.

[Pennyfarthing]

Well for a start I'm as peed off as anyone at being done out of around £30k.  It's got nothing to do with having an OH. I worked damned hard to get my full number of qualifying years in.

I definitely DID get two letters - the first several years ago telling me my retirement age would be 64 and 10 months, the second that it would be 66.  It was too late to do any further pension planning therefore I looked at what I could do to negotiate round it and downsizing was the only option as we didn't have other savings.

Any single woman who's still of working age who loses her job will be entitled to benefit IF she doesn't have access to ANY funds (ie in a rented home with zero savings). 

The woman in question clearly does have SOME funds. She was just anticipating a combination of state and occupational pension at 60 like a lot of us and now the rug's been pulled. So she needs to work out ways around it.

Of course she must be real - its the Mail.

Isn't it too late to sign the petition now (I did it a while ago)? I thought all the debating had been done and dusted.

You're very lucky you were written to then, because as you'll see from this link, many didn't. 

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/02/ministers-accused-mis-selling-during-debate-women-pensions

[Pennyfarthing]

http://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2016/03/women-poised-for-small-victory-in-pensions-claim/


Someone just forwarded this to me. I hope there's some truth in it.

[Pennyfarthing]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/george-osbornes-callous-raid-womens-7461381

[babyjane]

I received a pension forecast this week that I had applied for.  It confirmed that I have 40 qualifying years and will receive the full state pension in 2023 when I am 66.  OH received his which states that he will receive less because he was contracted out due to his company pension which he can start to take when he is 60 next year and which will underpin us until we are 66.

It is annoying to have to wait but my brother in law, who is younger than us, was saying that he will not receive his before 67.

[Pennyfarthing]

I received a pension forecast this week that I had applied for.  It confirmed that I have 40 qualifying years and will receive the full state pension in 2023 when I am 66.  OH received his which states that he will receive less because he was contracted out due to his company pension which he can start to take when he is 60 next year and which will underpin us until we are 66.

It is annoying to have to wait but my brother in law, who is younger than us, was saying that he will not receive his before 67.

And what do they quote as the full state pension?

[babyjane]

£151.25