A Labour MP is challenging Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, to ” correct the imbalance ” that allowed up to 9.8 million men to claim free national insurance contributions from the state while 50s born women were stopped from claiming anything.
He is the first MP to raise this issue, disclosed on this blog three years ago, directly with the Secretary of State. See here.
This huge subsidy only came to light when one of my readers ,Myfanwy Opeldus, one of 3.8 million women facing a six year delay to get her pension, got the admission from the ministry through a Freedom of Information request. three years ago.
Originally introduced in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher and Sir Geoffrey Howe, the former Tory chancellor, to cut down the employment figures. men aged 60 got ” auto credits” – free national insurance payments- towards their state pension if they did not claim unemployment benefit.
Meant to be a temporary measure men could still claim this right up to 2018. Women born in the 1950s were promised to be able to claim this once the coalition government started raising the pension age from 60 to 66 but it was never implemented.
The MP writes : “Recent revisions by the Department for Work and Pensions reveal that 9.8 million men received “auto credits” for pension eligibility—more than double the previously disclosed 4.65 million. This is particularly unsettling in comparison to the six-year pension delay faced by 1950s born women. The lack of transparency surrounding these payments for nearly four decades deepens these concerns. The timing of this disclosure, following a Court of Appeal hearing, underscores the need for prompt action. The substantial “auto credits” provided to men since 1983 to encourage male employment reveal an imbalance requiring correction.”
Mr Russell-Moyle is one of the MPs backing a bid to settle the long running disputed over compensation for the now 3.5 million women ( 300,000 have since died) by holding an alternative dispute resolution, hearing with the government. which is championed by Sir George Howarth, the Labour MP for Knowsley. This solution is being promoted by the CEDAWinLaw People’s Tribunal following a report by the former Australian anti discrimination commissioner, Dr Jocelynne Scutt, which says the UK broke international law by not compensating the women.
It is also a speedy way to resolve the problem compared to WASPI’s solution to get the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Rob Behrens, to recommend compensation which has been mired in delays and disputes for years.
This is the full test of his letter:
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This injustice has been going on for way too long. Women have historically been treated like second class citizens. Well we will not be dismissed out of hand and treated with contempt as successive govts have done. Women’s lives matter and we will keep fighting for what is ours by right.
Where are we up to with the Ombudsman? He’s dragging his feet isn’t he? Makes me suspect he has been instructed to do that. Give the job to a competent woman and see how long it takes.Or ask Dr Scutt to get involved, she won’t drag her feet!
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I would donate but can’t afford to.
Paid NI full stamp for 46 years fid £154 week.
While these who didn’t contribute get over £200.
100% discrimination
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This injustice has gone on for years & needs addressing urgently, 300 thousand has passed away never seeing any justice whatsoever, being forced to work when you do not have your health is cruel & inhumane, when you have jobs that require heavy manual work is hard, only people doing such jobs know, those that implement such policies need to do these jobs in order to make such decisions, in other words you need to walk in our shoes, the law is on our side & they need to follow the law, not made up policies to suit their agenda.
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This doesn’t make sense? When men over 60 got a NI credit (not money, just a paper credit, that’s all!) Women the same age were getting their state pension at 60 so why on earth would they have wanted needed a NI credit?! Now that women have the same SP age as men they too can, & and do, get these credits if they’re claiming an out of work benefit! I know because I got NI credits towards my SP when I received ESA & later universal credit. So I have no idea what the, perceived, problem is here?
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Very simply it is this. Men over 60 have had since the 1980s NI credits towards their pension which mean they could qualify for a highert pension without having to pay for it. Women were promised they would have the same thing once their pension age increased from 60 (not before) from 2010 to 2018 when the ages were equalised. But it was cancelled by the government. Men continued to get it until 2018. Since women’s pensions are often lower than men – they often don’t qualify for a full pension it was doubly unfair. Your other point is a red herring – pension contributions are credited for both men and women equally for ESA and Universal Credit.
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Once again I praise you David and those MPs like Mr Russell-Moyle and Sir George Howarth in pursuing this obvious injustice. Obviously it is women who have suffered the most. I just wish to add though that there a few men like me who were disqualified from the credits because I chose to work voluntarily abroad on development projects from the age of 60 to 65, instead of staying unproductive at home in UK. I doubt if this disqualification was a deliberate intended policy.
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Dear David Hencke,
Labour’s Blair and Brown Prime Minister / Pension Minister continued to grant men aged between 60 and 64, the automatic free NI credits when neither in work nor on benefit, all through their governments from 1997 to 2010.
Men getting the NI credits between ages 60 and 64 inclusive, when on unemployment or sick benefits, was gained without requirement to seek work, not offered to women aged between 55 to 59 before 2010/11. Nor offered to younger men, who suffered massive increase of sanctions into starvation and homelessness from 2010 onwards.
So why is Labour asking the Tories, who know now they will not win the next general election in 2024/5, instead of offering women
5 more years of NI record to all of us contracted out (majority), when they win (that election pundits say is most likely)?
Financial Times article: …”A Freedom of Information request by Responsible Life to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), found that of the estimated 3,057,000 people receiving the new state pension in November 2022, 649,000 women, and 881,000 men received less than £185.15.”… Last year’s full new flat rate state pension amount.
Us 1950s ladies began to reach 65 / 66 retirement age from 2018 / 2019 onwards. The flat rate system began to those retired from April 2016.
It was Labour’s Callaghan in 1978 that took mostly women out of the second state pension, who worked for government and councils, without needing our consent or even informing us.
That is why now, most women are getting less full new flat rate state pension even if had the raised NI history of 35 years. Even with the maximum 50 year contribute record.
Seeking people to volunteer admin the oven ready (full policy pledges already written) into existence. Please contact through website:
http://www.over50sparty.org.uk
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Us Waspis have been hung out to dry over and over again
It is finally time to pay us what we are all entitled to each and every Government must have thought these old dears we are robbing will just except it all !!!!
Well tell you something over all the past years fighting for our due rights all of us have got stronger and stronger …..
We know what they did to us so now it’s our turn to say
Justice is finally hitting the Scales .. .
No more being swept under the carpet
We had our monies stole we paid in the cash was there but spent years ago
Then the owner dropped
Oh dear we can’t pay the Pensioners at 60
Think of a plan 🤔 we are all
in the S!!T …..We will just keep hiking it another few years !!!!!!!! What a total mess thus Country is in !
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They have treat women like rubbish for years so sad many have died
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