Well I see no point either…
Tom’s arguments are laid out in the Times and are straightforward. I mark agreement green “agree”, orange “maybe” and “red” , I don’t agree. Overall, I can’t agree with the Government wasting more time on WASPI. I agree with Tom
Ten arguments with Tom’s word in black
- It’s Labour’s turn Pat McFadden is the 10th Secretary of State for Work and Pensions since Iain Duncan Smith in 2010. While not all of his predecessors may have considered the WASPI issue directly, it is notable that not one of them has concluded that the cause justified the payment of compensation. McFadden should follow in their footsteps and resist the demands for compensation.
2. Women should have known better For those women who were genuinely blindsided by the late discovery that the goalposts had been moved without their knowledge, I do feel sympathy: it must have been a deeply unpleasant moment. This, though, does not absolve them of their responsibility to check for themselves how much their state pension would be and when it would be paid
3. Some women this is no more than a hobby in retirement for leaders
- Women think they should have been personally notified The critical defining question of the WASPI issue is whether the government made accurate information readily available about the changes to women’s state pension ages. The WASPI campaigners say that the government failed to take adequate steps to reach out and personally notify them individually of the changes to their entitlement.
5. With private DB funds in decline, Women should take financial planning into their hands This is a dangerous road down which we do not want to go. With the decline of defined benefit (also known as final salary) schemes for all but the fortunate few public sector workers, it is now critical that each and every one of us takes personal responsibility for planning our finances for later life.
6. We all need to have a plan – it doesn’t have to be a pension but… What your plan looks like — saving in a pension, becoming a buy-to-let landlord, whatever — is secondary. The important thing is that we all need to have a plan. I cannot emphasise this enough. For the government to concede that because the Waspi women failed to do this they should be compensated would be perverse in the extreme.
7. The state failure falls well below the “threshold of culpability”. There are rare examples of state failure that are so egregious and damaging that a legitimate case for compensation can be made: the failures over infected blood and the post office computer systems are two such cases. The communication of changes to women’s state pension age falls well short of this threshold of culpability. It was widely publicised both at the time the decisions were made and subsequently.
8. This cohort of women have the best of UK’s wealth. As a cohort, the baby boomers have the best of the UK’s wealth, having ridden the demographic escalator that led to housing and pension wealth. For younger generations the picture is far less rosy.
9. Who pays the cost if costs are granted? Any compensation paid to these campaigners involves a transfer of wealth from other members of society. For young adults who are struggling to buy their first home, deal with the cost of living and save for their own retirement, having a government tell them that they must pay for this would be an extraordinary rejection of their own ambitions in life.
10. We’re broke. We know the government has run out of our money and that the budget in a couple of weeks will involve demands for more. WASPI compensation should not be added to that list of demands.
Four in green, five in orange and only one in red when I don’t agree.
Dozen or baker’s dozen? You decide
I have a couple of what I consider green and that makes a dozen
- We have too much pension legislation and a pension commission already, we don’t need to reopen another can of worms
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I agree that the women needed an investigation and backed them at that. I was seen as a supporter and am sorry for them (it wasn’t well managed). But we had the investigation and the line should be drawn beneath it. There is a worry that nothing will be finalised/
You might to make it a baker’s dozen in the comments section below.
The numbers and the process are outlined by the Financial Times here.
