As pressure mounts on the government to pay compensation to WASPI women, we ask…
Retirement is a time in life we all hope to enjoy comfortably. However, for many women born in the 1950s, this is proving to be a challenge.
Why? In 1995, the Conservative government’s State Pension Act included plans to increase women’s state pension age from 60 to 65 to bring it in line with men – and later from 65 to 66 for both sexes.
The problem? Those 3.6 million women affected weren’t given enough notice to plan for their retirement. By then, many had already taken life-changing decisions to leave work, often to care for elderly parents, partners or grandchildren, which has resulted in financial hardship.
WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) was set up in 2015, and is campaigning for compensation for the Fifties-born women who weren’t properly informed over state pension age changes by the Department for Work and Pensions. In March, following a six-year investigation, a report came out from the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman which outlined that WASPI women should get payouts between £1,000 to £2,950. But campaigners want payouts in excess of £10,000 in the worst affected cases.
Maria Fuccio, 67, a former social worker from Hampshire, is a WASPI woman who is suffering from financial distress as a result of not being given enough notice that she’d have to wait an extra six years to draw her state pension.
‘I’m classed as severely disabled and therefore don’t have the opportunity to generate more income,’ she says. ‘I live alone, in my own home and have no family as such. I just go into the tax bracket due to a private pension, so I have to pay tax. This stops me from getting pension credit, where an individual claiming can have £16,000 in savings. I have no savings. I used to go on holiday every year and now I can’t afford it. I’ve lost the lifestyle I’d enjoyed and live hand-to-mouth.
‘I rely on voluntary transport to get me to hospital as it’s a reduced fare, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford to go to my appointments, and I’m at high risk of three types of cancer – stomach, pancreas and liver. I had to get equity release from my bungalow to do home adaptations and changes.
‘My cat and dogs and crafting keep me “sane” but I feel like I’m in a prison as I’m usually stuck at home. It costs me £15 to go into town and I don’t have the money to socialise and have a meal out – or even have a takeaway at home.’
Last year the WASPI Campaign found that 70 per cent of its members had been forced to make cutbacks on their weekly spending, with half struggling to pay essential bills, and one in four struggling to afford food.
Chair of WASPI, Angela Madden, says that women have had to make ‘drastic decisions’ due to not be
