WASPI held a fringe meeting at the Labour conference in Liverpool this week. The organisation is campaigning to end women’s state pension equality and wants women born in the 1950s s to be compensated for them failure of the government to properly inform them of the effects of the six year delay from 60 to 66 in raising their pension age.
The meeting offered a great selection of Canapés-including dairy free ones for not a very big audience of 50 people- but I doubt anyone left any wiser on what would happen next. It took place with a running total banner showing over 203,573 of the women had died and the Treasury had saved over £3.1 billion by these deaths
The meeting began with a statement from Angela Madden but it was difficult to hear her clearly at the back of the room because of the acoustics and early on the organisers asked her to speak up. My understanding at the beginning was that she was talking about six million women which would cover those born in the 1950s and 1960s.
But after another journalist who was reporting the meeting and some people from Waspi say compensation was only for the3.6 million people I have amended my earlier report. I have received no statement from her only some coverage from Waspi members who object to my coverage revealing the contents of the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s second provisional report wh ich looks at the case for compensation for partial maladministration.
Angela Madden, Waspi’s campaign leader did put a figure on compensation for the pensioners for a one off payment -from £10,000 to £20,000 at a cost of £40 billion to £50 billion.
She told the audience that WASPI was still proceeding with a case with the Parliamentary Ombudsman to get compensation. But even with the support of the All Party Parliamentary Group for state pension inequality the maximum would be £10,000.
She gave the audience a very heavily edited version of the Ombudsman’s position saying he backed maladministration which boosted their case.
WASPI economical with the truth
In fact this was being very economic with the truth. The Ombudsman’s published first report backed only partial maladministration which would automatically reduce compensation and was never challenged by Waspi. She made no reference to the second unpublished report which reduces compensation even further by saying people do not need to be compensated for financial loss only worry and confusion. And she made no reference to WASPI’s investigation into the alleged decision of the DWP’s Independent Case Examiner to destroy 2500 of the letters from complainants about their pension delay. You can read the still confidential report and the scandal at ICE on this site.
Worse she disclosed that Waspi had tried to meet government ministers to press their case but ministers would not even see them.
Labour were more diplomatic since the main speaker at the fringe was Baroness Glenys Thornton, the Lords shadow equalities minister. She repeated that Keir Starmer was sympathetic and wanted to compensate the women. But when it came to a £50 billion price tag she was not going to commit to that. Afterwards she told me she had to be “very cautious” in mentioning any sum at all.
She was much stronger on the plight of cold pensioners failing to keep warm during the present cost of living crisis and gave some advice on how campaigners could raise issues. This does seem to suggest that the pre 2019 election £60 billion compensation package promised by John McDonnell, Labour’s former shadow chancellor, is being quietly dropped.
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Paying lip service to Waspi yet again
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Thanks
As always finger on the pulse!…what happened to Labour’s ‘more generous’ proposal at the last ( or one before) election.
WASPI and #backto60 should unite to lobby both the main parties in UK to recognise that many ’50s women will be those suffering from fuel poverty and also the injustice of their treatment in the first place and by governments putting bankers before pensioners.
Keep fighting
Karen
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GREY SWANS ONLY WAY TO GET £35,000 COMPENSATION and tapered compensation to 1960s ladies
WASPI and BackTo60 cannot unite, as the complaints are entirely different.
WASPI is only a complaint to a government department and not to government, as accept the age discrimination against women.
BackTo60 is a direct campaign to government of bringing the international law of CEDAW treaty of the rights of women and girls into UK domestic law and the temporary special measure of compensation to the 1950s ladies.
Grey Swans is the only campaign that does not keep banging our heads against the brick wall of elected politicians, by seeking to gain moral support for creation of our new Over 50s (saves all ages) party, as would be the sole way once in existence, to gain £35,000 compensation to 1950s ladies and tapered compensation to the 1960s born (turning 60 since 2020), as well as pension age 60 for the 1960s born.
The Admin of Modern Day Suffragettes permitted members to make up their own mind in a poll on their Facebook page and showed a lot of moral support.
The more 1950s and 1960s ladies show moral support, the more knowledgeable types can bring the Over 50s party into existence, that only costs about the price of a cheap 2nd hand car, shared between them, for the legal fees (got a formal estimate from a specialist law firm) to register so can run in general election.
Many may have died from the pension age rise and from the pandemic (unable to shield by age in our 60s), but we are still millions of potential voters, born between 1950s to 1980s (victims of pension age rise between 66 to 68).
Seeking help, please, to get back onto the WE PAID IN, YOU PAY OUT Facebook main page, so can do a poll of members, to make up their own mind about moral support towards Over 50s Party’s creation. Please ask Admins Coral and Trudy. Then Trudy could PM me please.
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when i was about to turn 60 on may the 7th 2014 i thought i was going to receive my state pension till i was told i would nt get my pension till 6th jan 2020 well you could have knocked me down with a feather i was totally shocked so i made an appointment to meet up with mr steve webb he took letter to westminster then i received letters back disgusting so i still had to work on this is not fair as we have all paid into system the day i started work they told me i get my pension when i m 60 obviously that did nt happen if i stole from a shop i would be charged or fined but because its dwp they get away with stealling our money they should be paying our money upfront as its not theres and also the full money not in instalments .
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While we have strikes left right and centre
For higher wages. The 50’s women should be at the top of the list.
They know full well they high jacked our pensions. Us women are doing childcare in our latter years so the younger generation
Can go to work. Also when we get our pension we are told not eligible for carers
Allowance. Yet we are still caring for that dependent it doesn’t stop just cos we get our pensions
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Thanks again for true reporting for all #50women.
#Waspi lie to members to suit their own agenda while the government try to bury us.
It’s good to know what’s really happening, thank you David
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We must be compensated each and every woman born on the 1950’s who were not awarded a pension refund.
The government has robbed those still alive & those who have died they have illegally stolen money from their families too.
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Screwed again
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It’s not just ministers that are not listening to Waspi, it’s the ombudsman as well, who appears to be following the Govt playbook very closely i.e. obfuscate, delay, make up his own rules on standards, minimise, shift the blame, and then if we are very lucky offer a few crumbs in the hundreds of £ to a minority and then DWP will make it as difficult as possible to apply for.
Full Restitution is our legal and moral right
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Total Thanks 4 this latest article @davidhencke.com
I’m afraid waspi was infiltrated long ago 2 ensure #50sBornWomen’s just battle 4 #Recognition #Respect & #FullRestitution could be controlled/derailed. They most certainly do NOT speak 4 the vast majority of #50sWomen (including the families of those now sadly deceased) who are owed the return in full of every single penny of our STOLEN #StatePension all the way #BackTo60 as we’d originally AGREED! We have done everything asked & more; we & our Employers honoured the Tripartite Agreement by paying all necessary NIC’s as did Govt too – UNTIL Govt quietly not only RENEGED but actually raided the NIC’s Fund as disclosed in your earlier articles! #SHEnoughIsSHEnough
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David there is enough misinformation going around without you adding to it by being rather economical with the truth. The PHSO has not said “people do not need to be compensated for financial loss only worry and confusion” in his Stage 2 provisional report.
What was said was; “We cannot consider the financial consequences of changes in the law about when women can claim their State Pension. We can only consider whether it is more likely than not failings in DWP’s communication of those changes had the financial consequences women claim.”
If you’re going to leak parts of the report, please be accurate about it. You are supposed to be on the side of ALL 50s’ women but you seem to be heavily biased towards BT60.
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What the PHSO says completely contradict themselves between one sentence and the next.
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Why are you continually getting at Waspi and basically making stuff up?
First of all the PHSO’s scale of Injustice has 6 levels – Level 6 which is what the APPG support allows a payment of £10,000 or more. There is no £6,000 maximum.
Secondly Waspi is campaigning for all women born 6th April 1950 to 5th April 1960 and the total is 3.8m women. They are not campaigning for 6m women born in the 50s and 60s.
Yet you accuse Waspi of being economical with the truth? This bitterness towards other campaign groups is simply playing into the Government’s hands David.
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I will change the reference to £10,000 .I checked my notes of the meeting which records that’s Angela mentioned six million people not three million in her introduction when she talked about fair compensation in a one off payment. I am afraid the rest stands.I have read both PHSO reports and it is only partial maladministration and this was not challenged by Waspi.. The second report decided that ICE’s handling of complaints did not justify compensation and it discusses whether the health and financial impacts justify maladministration compensation and seems to decide that while compensation may be justified not at that level.
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I’ve read the 2nd report too as it was sent to me by the PHSO as opposed to being leaked to you by someone who should know better.
The ICE complaint handling is only one small part of the whole investigation so why pick on that part and ignore the sections where maladministration was found?
50s’ women have been badly let down by the very people who should be looking out for us and I’m afraid you must take your fair share of the blame. Rather than giving out snippets of the report with no context, you really should have waited till the report was officially published so that it can be read fully.
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I presume you agreed with the PHSO in keeping the second report secret until next year if you have it officially been given it.I didn’t see why 3.8 million women should have to wait while an elite decides-what was good for them . they are not children. As for leaking reports every day journalists somewhere are doing this.In my 40 plus years as a journalist mainly on the Guardian I have leaked loads of official reports especially from DWP. I even had a source recently in the DWP leaking to my blog when pensioners were being particularly badly treated by the DWP.
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The 2nd report is so far only provisional. Once it is no longer provisional it will be published. My concern over the leaks is that you’re providing snippets of the full 50 page document which really needs to be read in full to be understood. What we have now is your opinion of what may happen rather than the complete story. I don’t find that helpful at all. It’s simply divisive.
As to the numbers that Angela Madden quoted, it sounds like you have simply misheard her or noted it wrongly. She said 3.6m women and not 6m women.
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I think you must be going deaf David because nobody else heard that!! Perhaps you’re thinking of a different topic. School boy error. As for the PHSIs provisional report – you make a lot of assumptions. You’re just a teeny weeny bit sad really.
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Not as sad as 3.6 million women will be if the compensation you get is inadequate
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It seems WaSpi lemmings do what lemming’s do. Follow each other over the cliff edge,
Wake up & take note what’s staring you in the face and who’s leading you in the headlong rush to destruction.
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Thank you fighting our corner. I am still working at 68 years old as well as looking after my 92year old mother with Dementia who now lives with me. I am not eligible for Carers allowance as I am still working.
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You don’t get carers allowance if you have state pension
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Thanks David for all that you do we are lucky to have you on our side
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Well at least this is getting talked about . Just wish they would get on with it . As some of us find it hard working due to bad health and we can’t get our pension early .woman have been treated like 2nd rate people as usual …
Thank you for keeping us posted .
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I feel that 50s women were trodden all over, I for one have been following this since this campaign started, I think we have been treated disrespectful. Everyone knows that 50s women did not get letters re their pension,I for one have lost over 48000 pounds
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The main point I take from your useful article is that the Ombudsman is unlikely to recommend anything like the compensation many are expecting to receive. Indeed, looking at paragraphs 290 to 293 of the provisional report, it is quite possible that there will be no financial remedy at all. I note the payment accepted by Ms R of £50 for stress. (para 279). So it is possible that limited compensation for distress, stress and anxiety may be thought appropriate in some circumstances but not as PHSO points out, where that stress arises from the decision to change the pension age; the Act of Parliament itself. It must be caused by the DWP maladministration identified in the earlier report- the 28 month delay. Much harder to show. I think the writing is on the wall and you don’t need to be a soothsayer to see what is the likely outcome; an apology for past failings and a commitment to get it right in future. Whether Waspi will go down the judicial review route remains to be seen. Would their lawyers advise that by reaching the decision to exclude all but the 28 month window from their assessment of maladministration PHSO was irrational (Wednesbury unreasonable) in some way. Personally I doubt it. Judging by the lengthy provisional report, a most thorough, well argued and legally sound set of conclusions are likely to be delivered in due course.
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PHSO report is a joke the only way we will get any compensation is with a change of Government roll on for hopefully an early general election before any more of us die
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You seem to have lost your support for Waspi’s women, why ? They are cold pensioners. I’m sitting here typing, cold 😨
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WASPI has never been a campaign for poor pensioners unable to afford to heat and eat, never having campaigned against women’s pension age rise.
Grey Swans campaign is not to any currently elected political type, but is seeking moral support, please, for creation of our new Over 50s (saves all ages) party, that alone offers:
– Pension age 60
– £448.12 per week state pension for all pensioners, old and new, including the frozen pensioner Brit Expats abroad.
www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
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I am 55 this year. With issues with my health, I had to stop working a few years ago. My husband is a pensioner. Now there are rumours that people over 60 will now have to pay for their prescriptions. I take 5 different tablets a day, so if that did happen to me, I would have to seriously think about cutting down. Sorry to say, but I don’t think that I am the only female to have to consider these extreme measures. I / we need this money, just to survive these next few years. We are (majority of us), mother’s,sisters,wives,grandmother’s, who have spent our lives 24 hours a day trying to keep our families together. This is a plea on behalf of the millions of us woman, to sort this out and do the right thing, and not wait for the millions of letters you wil receive regarding the deaths of the women concerned.
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Only in England is the free prescriptions between 60 and 67 (1960s born began turning 60 from 2020) being considered to end.
Scotland, Ulster and Wales have free prescriptions for all ages the same.
Those UK nations are not separate countries, but only devolved from the overall laws of UK parliament down in London.
Discrimination by age needs to be taken to High Court, by the retired sections of trade unions and Age UK and National Pensioners Convention.
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Well look at all the money they have had of these women who worked brought children up paying for child care out of there own wages we didn’t get any child care money like these young mums do so it’s about time this came to a head now drag on for to long the women that have died with no pension bet that’s what you in parliament want all of us dead so no compensation good old government agin all the same nothing will ever change it’s another world in Big old London that’s what it is all about the ones with money sod joe bloggs get a grip sort it out we have waited long enough time
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It’s gone on too now we want compensation for what this government have done to 1950s and 60s women
It’s terrible how we have been treated.
I would really like to know what happened to the pension pot. I think the government spent that money so none was left for our pensions on retirement and maybe that’s why they put the working age to 65 and then 66 yr because there was nothing left to pay us with. I may be barking up the wrong tree but it’s my thinking. I am a registered nurse and I had to stop work in 2019 due to ill health and have live off small pittance from DWP it’s another 2 years I have to wait to get my pension.
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There was and remains no pension pot. The state pension has no contract sadly. But we know it is a National Insurance Fund pension system.
The NI Fund has received extra worker and boss contributions by pension age rise since 2011. Also more pensioners are remaining in work beyond retirement age, which means boss NI contributions continue.
The early death rate of:
– has soared for women aged in our 50s and 60s since 2011,
– we have been increasingly dying quicker in retirement and
– the excess winter elder death rate has remained at amongst the rich nations’ highest amount, even above pandemic death rates.
The pandemic has killed off pensioners at the rate of £1bn less paid out in state pension going on into the future.
The ‘there is no money left’ lie is just that. It is pure theft.
Grey Swans’ campaign is not to any elected political type at all, but for moral support, please, for creation of our new Over 50s (saves all ages) party that offers, when in new government by your kind votes at next general election:
– £35,000 compensation to 1950s ladies
– sole offer of compensation to 1960s ladies (turning 60 since 2020)
– Pension age 60 (1960s ladies onwards)
– Age 50 back for early works pension or in full for manual jobs (1970s born onwards)
www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
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Why does everything come down to money when pensioners are dying before they receive their pension just give us what we are entitled to
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this sounds like an empty promise if no one is behind the promise, money is being found for everything but the older generation in this country, we are considered an inconvenience, we need a leader with a backbone
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FAO Angela Madden
& #WaSpi Board Members
#StandDownWSpi
Let’s hear a response from Angela Madden, Chair #WaSpi herself.
Joanne Welch
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Perhaps you should stop listening to David Hencke’s flawed reporting. Angela Madden never said 6m 50s’ and 60s’ women. She said 3.6m women which covers April 1960 to April 1960.
Why don’t you simply get on with your own campaign and leave Waspi to get on with theirs? Despite your claims no campaign has the authority to speak for ALL of us as you’ve never asked us.
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One does not need anyone’s permission to report a meeting that is advertised in the Labour Party programme particularly as I was an accredited journalist at the conference I will say that at the beginning it was a bit difficult to hear the platform until the organiser intervened to improve the microphones.
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Why not allow Angela Madden & the WaSpi Board speak for itself?
All/any compensation packages are the business of ALL #50sWomen – your permission and/or approval to comment is not sought nor required by me or any #50sWomen excluded from vital information by WaSpi Secret Society that lost its legal representation and placed the Maladministration case in jeopardy.
We lawfully represent all #50sWomen via our legal team out of our Judicial Review and Tribunal: unlike other self appointed oracles.
Selling victims short – without their consent – is WaSpi’s modus operandi.
The economy has tanked and ALL victims will need – more than ever – every penny owing to them to encounter the horrors to come.
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@David. I wasn’t aware I said you needed permission to report. I said that you obviously misheard 3.6m as 6m and despite others telling you about your mistake you have refused to see that you were wrong and correct it. People can and do make mistakes and yes the sound may not have been good but at least have the decency to admit your mistake.
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@Joanne Welch.
The only people you have permission to speak for, legal team or otherwise, are the two claimants Delve and Glynn. Nobody else gave you permission to speak for them.
As to letting Angela Madden and the Waspi board speak for themselves I very much hope they don’t join in your mud slinging.
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Perhaps it’s time that those who support Angela Madden & co should take note of why they are selling 50sWomen short?
First the spectacle with Bindmans, the split then Connect. That would tell any logical thinking person there is something untoward going on within this group.
Sadly some will be taken in by tea and cake. Logical thinking is out of their range?
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Several comments on this thread about the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Check out the website ‘PHSO the true story’. The Ombudsman service is in desperate need of an enquiry into how it operates and reform.
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It would be nice to be compensated, but in all honestly until I see the compensation in my bank account ,I won’t believe it..
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Here’s an earlier Waspi/WaSpi Board dispute which apparently preceded the loss of legal representation by Bindmans for the Maladministration case:
https://www.ftadviser.com/state-pension/2018/03/15/waspi-leadership-spat-holds-up-legal-case/
Without legal representation, the Maladministration case is under threat.
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ThankYou David for your support and reporting on the plight of All 50s.
If what you have reported is in any way false then now is the time to for Angela Madden to speak up. It is well known that it was 3.8 million 50sWomen that was affected by SPA increases so for her to mention 6 million she included those who were born in the 60s?
Malad PHSO is solely about 1950sWomen
A M silence speaks volumes in my personal opinion.
Is she leaving it to others to clean up her mess? 🤔.
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It’s not Angela Madden’s mess to clean up. It’s David Hencke’s mess to clear up by admitting he’s made a mistake in his reporting.
The Mirror has it correct with 3.6m women being mentioned.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/thousands-die-cold-homes-winter-28078561?fbclid=IwAR2ufvUN-izFAXAULlq4MsdzFbveBk2FCCqyvzTnCUz5IaMWsVllDLkSfNI
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ThankYou David for your unswerving support for 50sWomen
Here is the two PHSO reports for anyone who wishes to see them.
https://1drv.ms/b/s!Ah-_-C9A6wH9ik8C_5LbNUtZqyHW?web=1
https://1drv.ms/w/s!Ah-_-C9A6wH9hyO1WqALAvl7AhIS
It seems to me that Angela Madden silence on these reports speak volumes?
Is it because she only represents a few not the many ?
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It takes great courage to report honestly on uncomfortable.fortable home truths that some may not wish to hear
Thank you David, for your fearless reporting, as always
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Surely if the Government can manage without the extra 5% of tax from the higher rate of tax payers, it would have made sense to leave the higher rate of tax at 45% and put that extra 5% into paying the 50s born women’s pensions. After all, it was the Government that raided our pension pots and they should repay it without delay, obfuscation or maladministration.
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David I’m shocked at some of the replies posted re your article (reporting an event you attended at this years Labour Conference) advising ALL 50s women what occurred. Sadly some folk never fail to disappoint regardless of given facts!
I for one appreciate your endeavours & your ongoing support for this generation of women who have been so stealthily mistreated/abused. Thank you for everything you do; please know that we truly do value your honest, no-nonsense approach which lays bare/opens to scrutiny events/incidents impacting our daily lives no matter (how distasteful some may find it). Simple fact is truth hurts!
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I think its disgusting the way weve been treated .I have worked all my life 41 years 12 hour shift 7 days a week and paid full stamp and this they we get treated .sham on you all .
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How many reports and interim reports need to be produced? If they are not going to offer compensation perhaps they could just give us Co-op funeral vouchers. Waspi and Backto60 should be working together.
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WASPI and BackTo60 cannot work together, as two entirely different legal options.
WASPI is only a complaint about a government department, now going through the Ombudsman, who are merely employees of government and not politicians in parliament. There is no complaint about pension age rise.
BackTo60 is a campaign to get CEDAW international treaty on the rights of women and girls into UK domestic law and then ask for a temporary special measure to pay compensation to the 1950s ladies.
Grey Swans is the most unique of all pension campaigns, as has stopped campaigning like a begging bowl to the rich, to any elected political type, and is asking for moral support from 1950s to 1980s born ladies, please, for creation of a new Over 50s (saves all ages) party, that offers by getting into a new government, by your kind votes, at next general election:
– £35,000 compensation to 1950s ladies
– sole compensation to 1960s ladies (turning 60 since 2020)
– pension age 60 for 1960s ladies (as have pension age 67) onwards
– Age 50 back for early works pensions or in full for manual jobs (1970s born onwards)
And so much more at www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
which unlimited page website, published manifesto, was crowdfunded by pension campaign ladies as individuals, gathered from all our misery heaped on our head by Tory, Labour and Lib Dems governments alike since 1978 onwards.
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@DorothySpringer As you have appointed yourself, to use your terminology, ‘mudslinger’ for #WaSpi Angela Madden & Board, you would do well to look in the mirror. Let’s not get into #WaSpiWordplay – we’ll be here all night.
In any event, had #WaSpi nothing to hide, they would respond themselves.
Your view about who we represent reveals how little you know about legal challenges and, indeed, how exposed the Maladministration case is without the lost legal representation from Bindmans.
Again, any woman born in the 1950’s is a victim and has a perfect right to comment and/or make any enquiries: with both PHSO Reports recently leaked on social media, they are now better informed.
Lastly, show some respect for David Hencke, a Veteran Lobby Correspondent and Award Winning Journalist.
ENDS
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Pot, kettle, black springs to mind.
As for showing respect towards David Hencke, I will do so when he admits his mistake and reports accurately.
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They are fighting a losing case with any colour of Government just like the 500,000 Frozen UK pensioners who are fighting for parity with the current rates of UK State Pensions.
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Dear Robert Crutchlow, frozen state pensions for Brit Expats in particular but not all countries, was the system from the proper start of National Insurance.
Only a new party in a new government in UK can pay a full state pension with triple lock annual rises.
www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
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The government won’t pay anything they have hit the county’s finances in a complete mess . Paying compensation is the last thing they will do more like bring pension retirement forward so they get more money to pay fir their mistakes . The pensioner will pay !
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£10,000 is nowhere near what has been stolen from me. Born January 1954.
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Thank you David for finally admitting that you got the 6m wrong and that it should have been 3.6m women.
Please also be aware that my anger about you leaking the confidential report from the PHSO is more to do with the fact that you are selectively picking parts of the report to suit what appears to be an anti Waspi agenda. If you feel that ALL 50s’ women should be able to see it then you should have leaked the full report so that everyone can read, and hopefully understand, all of it themselves.
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Reports by journalists never contain a full report – normally articles range between 500-700 words and include selective quotes. However I am about to publish the summery of the report in full so people can see all the main points it makes.
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10,000 pounds would be a quarter of what the government stole from me. Should I be satisfied with that pitiful amount?
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Labour are as bad as the rest ,none worth voting for .I am 73 and experienced them all Waspi will get nothing from any of them.Nothing came through our door regarding pension change I also always tuned into BBC radio news in my truck from1979 until I finished in2022, they have stolen and cheated the waspi women and all those before them….NEXT ELECTION our family will vote NONE with a line through and please do not say it is a waste
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Dear Jimmy Sturdy,
Admin Grey Swans is a specific pension group of the 1950s ladies, who can attest to how bad Tory, Labour and Lib Dems governments have been to women pensioners and the 1950s to 1980s born ladies, since at least 1978.
When a brief interlude of a different kind of Labour leader came into being, he was sabotaged by his own party, when offering pension age 60 to men in his 1983 election manifesto, and living state pension to men and women the same. They would not have risen pension age on you men.
Grey Swans is now a very different campaign, to gain moral support for creation of a new Over 50s (saves all ages) party, that would grant:
– £35,000 compensation to 1950s ladies.
– Pension 60 men and women (1960s born now turning 60)
– Age 50 works pensions (1970s born now turning into their 50s)
– £448.12 per week state pension for all pensioners, old and new, men and women the same.
And so much more learned by us 1950s ladies campaigning since 2013.
As well as all for ages of course, like policies of:
– £16 per hour minimum wage from age 16,
– 22 per cent pay rise for nurses and Junior Doctors,
– resurrect fully public NHS,
– renationalise energy companies so lowered prices immediately in government.
And so much more.
www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
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It all sounds great ,I have lived through (the pound in your pocket),(tightening our belts) (jam tomorrow ) (all in it together…ha ha) the grey suites will not allow it …….they got a big shock when we voted BREXIT….they will not allow such a thing again (as a truck driver I worked more hours under the common market and eu ,driving about and talking to people I saw the 08 crash coming and the vote no……..they told the waspi women there was no money,then along comes covid,Ukraine (plenty for war mongering …and then the icing on the cake 1000 illegals across the channel that they can not stop (really ? ) We can not pay these women a fair pension ..do not make me laugh .. .none of the above STARMER ….ER like the rest
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Dear Jimmy Sturdy,
Clement Attlee won in 1945 against the war hero Winston Churchill and gave us all that we have pretty well lost now.
My manifesto is Attlee’s in the modern age, which includes the biggest betterment of National Insurance and state pension in its history between 1945 and 1951.
The governments of Harold Wilson (1960s and early 1970s) built on Attlee’s foundations and our Over 50s party’s policies are only what the state pension would have reached if Wilson’s betterments of 1974 and 1975 had remained til today.
The EU has stolen the works and state pensions from pensioners (however long in payment) and still is from the enslaved indebted EU states of southern and eastern Europe.
I travelled Europe by road (yep a female map reader right across the continent), long before you, and we managed to trade with Europe without the political union. And I travelled with a mother who could talk French (so France and Belgium), Italian, German (so also Austria and a language spoken throughout Yugoslavia), and Greek. Meaning we could also talk to Albanians, Romanians and Bulgarians on the road down to Greece.
Liz Truss’ Chancellor was talking to the International Monetary Fund in America, when he was sacked. If he has plunged us into an IMF loan, we are in Greece’s austerity now. Heaven forfend not. IMF (alongside EU government and banks) is a pensioners’ greatest enemy worldwide. And to social medicine (in our case NHS).
The grey suits now hate the Tories and are talking up Labour (latter greatest enemy to pensioners since 1978 with the same enemies in the party, against Attlee and Wilson).
Our Over 50s party is £35,000 compensation to 1950s ladies and £448.12 per week state pension to you Sir, pensioner new and old.
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The whole thing is flawed. The DWP failed to carry out a proper Equality Impact Assessment on its policy implementation of 1995 pension act and subsequent laws this breaches the Public Sector Equality Duty part of the Equality Act. If look at the groups of people you can calculate the lifetime discrimination by facts. Provision should be made to pay 1950 and 1960 the difference in lifetime discrimination which is fair and can be calculated.
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The whole thing is flawed. The DWP failed to carry out a proper Equality Impact Assessment on its policy implementation of 1995 pension act and subsequent laws this breaches the Public Sector Equality Duty part of the Equality Act. If look at the groups of people you can calculate the lifetime discrimination by facts. Provision should be made to pay 1950 and 1960 women the difference in lifetime discrimination as compensation which is fair and can be calculated. Iam working on this as an individual as I have 20 years of evidence but dont have any money to take a legal case.
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Dear Diane Fowley,
Using the easy old basic state pension system, came up with the flat figure for all ladies born 1953 to 1959 of £35,000. Tapered from 1951 to 1953 and born from 1960. Pension 60 for 1960s born who have pension age 67 (they started turning 60 from 2020).
There can be no full restitution, as the new flat rate state pension calculation is practically individual, with its small print, for most women, so would take years to work out for each lady.
But the only way to get that money is with a new party never before in power over government, as all of the elected governments, Tory, Labour and Lib Dems since 1978 have done nothing else but butcher the state pension, because mostly women care about it. Today around half of lady pensioners rely solely on the state pension in retirement.
www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
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I think the government have been grossly unfair to the waspi women .loads have died saving the government money .we women of the 1950s paid every penny for the state pension to retire at 60 yes. Many women got to sick to work and had to use savings to survive.then when they got there pension they were mugged again over the triple lock being taken off .no one seems to care or want to help any pensioners .how many more will die
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Thank you …..
68 last month WASPI ….
Like so many of us Women the struggle is not over far from it !
Yes we are still praying and fighting for our rights to be finally resolved
Far too long we have waited for Justice….
Paid vast amounts of monies for Court sessions etc.but still
all the wrong under handed issues that have been swept under the carpet are still haunting us
The theft of our Pension fund monies with still no
persons being held responsible as to were it went etc
Because it was in the kitty it was there and whoever used it (STOLE) therefore should be brought to JUSTICE and we all should see documents relating to this spending.
We are the ones who have been totally robbed of our Retirement savings
So we wait yet again for our answers !!!!!!
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Tories in 1995, Labour with 2007 pension act, and Lib Dems that brought both laws into existence, to raise pension ages on women from 60 to 66, 67 and 68 today, are the governments who ‘stole’ our state pension.
The National Insurance Fund sadly is not a ‘kitty’ for a pension scheme, but funding for various other things as well, including redundancy for workers when a private firm goes bust.
Equally sadly, we did not have law to give us a contract right nor a human right to the state pension.
It is because men do not care about the state pension, that so much discrimination was done against us to butcher what little state pension we had, in all governments continually since 1978.
I keep asking David Hencke, please, to help Grey Swans pension group’s campaign to gain moral support for our new Over 50s (saves all ages) party, that appears now to be the only way we will get some compensation and save the next victims, of the 1960s to 1980s born ladies with pension age 67 and 68 now and forever and pensioner poverty (mostly women, mostly living alone more than men). For David Hencke to do a blog article for me, to help us all.
WEBSITE
www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
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All these comments are basically about how much compensation women should get. I would like to point out we were given to believe the new pension would mean we would be better off. In my case born 1953, started receiving my pension in Nov 2018. Before the changes I had earned additional pension of £21.20 per week. This got wiped out on the new 2016 changes. I was contracted out for 1 year, am receiving £180.96 per week because of a deduction for COPE. A woman getting the basic old pension gets £145.15 per week and top up of pension credit of £37.45 per week so receives a total of £182.60 per week. Can someone explain how I am better off. I am not entitled to Pension Credit, I lost around 3Ok in pension over 5 years, lost my additional pension and had to pay NIC for an extra 5 years. I fail to see how we were actually duped into thinking we would be better off, we are NOT!!!
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My name is Zandra Wenzel I lost 4 anda half years pension and on top of that.i have a illnesses that the what pay for I have to find £450 for treatment to help me I have cancer. And other illnesses but I really need help with this one it is a .medical conditions but I can’t even afford to pay if I had my pension from60 I could have saved it up .ad you get old the government do not care zandra wenzel
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It’s about time this matter for us waspi women was sorted out once and for all so many of us women including myself have had to use our savings to survive and we are now wanting the government to address this situation and give us women the compensation we all deserve we have struggled but the government just don’t care enough to end this once and for all there are women who have died waiting how much longer do we have to suffer
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We have to remember that the Department of Work and Pensions are only employed by the politicians and did not increase pension age, which they cannot do. Only politicians can bring about law.
It was Lib Dems Pension Minister between 2010 and 2015 who could have stopped both the Tory and Labour pension age rise laws, but chose to bring them all into law at warp speed, directly causing the misery and early death of us 1950s ladies.
www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
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Labour were awarding us 5 grand a year for 6 years! Tories, no chance!
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Labour was not awarding us, as it was not in their published manifesto. Only Jeremy Corbyn as leader offered us £31,100 compensation, which was sabotaged by the present Labour leader Starmer, and his fellow saboteurs against Labour winning 2019 general election.
Labour has done this many times against their own party, with examples in 1931, 1935 and 1983. Sadly for 1983, as Labour manifesto then held pension 60 for men, and we know they could not have risen pension age on men afterwards.
www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
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Give us our money NOW!!!
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I was born in 19 Fifty three I have suffered My Health I have rheumatoid Also I have a stoma bag I have to take cancer drug everyday as I have cancer I have to take war friend because of blood clots I have to take Emerald and lot of this has caused me Distress as I cannot afford anyone to come in and help me and my husband Is ill as well If I would have received My pension when I was 60 I could have done more To help pay for someone to come in and look after me I think it’s disgusting that I work from the Age of 14 and I have lost 4 years and 2 months All I want Is compensation For what I have lost
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So sorry to hear of your health problems. Like you born in 1953 and had to wait 5 years for my SP. Our year was the most unfair, I don’t know how this was ever allowed to go through. How can one particular group of women be more penalised then the rest. From April 2016 they changed the wait time from 2 months from month of birth to 4 months per month of birth. It then reverted back to the 2 month rule for year 1954 births onwards. I don’t even know how this could have been lawful, but never seems to have been picked up in all the ensuing arguements. Like you I am in poor health with osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, thyroid disorder, glaucoma, asthma, vitiligo and in pain every single day. I was unable to work after fracturing my back in 2016 and needed that extra money they stole from me to help make alterations to our house, installing a WC on the ground floor and a shower in the bathroom which was paid from the money I receivef from a small pension I cashed in. Now they deduct just under £17 per month from my SP because I was contracted out for just 1 year which relates to the small pension I mentioned. They told us we would be better off, but they also wiped out any additional pension some of us had earned, in my case £21.30 per week. I am actually worse off than a friend who is on the basic pension who gets it topped up with pension credit and she actually receives just over £7 than me! I try to accept we will never get anywhere with compensation, but it has made me a very bitter and angry person and it is something I will never get over. It is something that gnaws at me every single day and with my health as it is and the injustice of it all, it makes me feel very suicidal at times, but I am too much of a coward to do it. It’s even affected what was before a happy marriage, but because I can’t accept it, my husband is exaperated with me being continually miserable.
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Completely heartbroken to read Zandra and Sue Ws messages. Don’t let these lousy stinking thieving rats ruin whatever time we have left. Money is not everything they say, but it is when you haven’t got any. Courage Ladies.
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How long is this Going on for ????! Meanwhile more of us Will die, I seriously need my money now!!!
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It appears through this blog that the Ombudsman is only offering around £1,000 to the 6 sample ladies and 600 ladies that have complaint letters with the Ombudsman. I don’t know if mine got through to the Ombudsman, although I sent all 4 legal template letters.
Us non WASPI members have may, like me, never have received acknowledgement letters or update letters from the PHSO. We’ve no feedback, nothing.
www dot over50sparty dot org dot uk
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