I don’t think £200 billion is chicken feed for any country 
Perhaps the DWP should have been fair in their dealings then.
Really, not a lot. And not enough to right the wrong to the huge numbers affected.
There is a lot of anger over this.
However - the equalisation of pension age was part of the 1995 Pensions Act and it was to be phased in from 2010 to 2020 - so when the 2011 act brought it forward to 2018 it was only knocking 2 years off the schedule.
So people should have had a minimum 15 years notice of the changes - it sounds from many of the comments that people were not keeping themselves abreast of changes in pension legislation - "[...] only found out about the change to the state pension age when a friend told her. She had just turned 58 and had planned to retire two years later. " - I mean, really?
Also comments like
Suggests that there is persistent misunderstanding as to how the state pension works. The answer, of course is: “it was never there in the first place, and if it was it was spent on all of the things on which government spends”. There is no pot with your name on, if the government pays your pension later than you thought it would there is nothing “stolen”.
I know these women feel wronged, but I despair, I really do, at the level of ignorance on display.
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Not especially wishing to put my head above the parapet, but it feels like I’ve known about these changes for a long time. Decades.
Why was this all a big surprise?
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As far as I can remember the changes were meant to be brought in over quite a long period, and then they weren’t… As an example, my sister in law got her state pension at 60, my wife who’s only 15 months younger didn’t get hers until she was 66 (or maybe 65)
Because people failed to keep themselves up to date with the changes.
The 58 year old quoted above is (according to the BBC) now 65 - so she was 58 in 2017, 22 years after the 1995 legislation.
It should not have been a surprise to her.
I’m annoyed about the fact I’ll be working until I’m 67 - but I’m not somehoe under the illusion the retirement age is still 65.
They were - the 2011 act brought the completion of the gradual change forward from 2020 to 2018, but still 7 years notice of a change that people should have known was happening anyway.
None of the money in our lives really exists. Its a promise. Like the promise to receive a pension on retirement at 60/65 if we contributed. We had a contract with the government and they broke it.
No, you didn’t.
The government pays out pensions according to the legislation in place at the time - it can change that legislation any time it wants. Sunak could decide to cancel all state pension, or to make it means tested and push that through parliament before the election if he so wished and there is nothing anyone of us could do about it.
That scenario, I agree, is unlikely - even for Sunak (though i’m sure he’d love to scrap state pensions) but you have no contract with the government to pay you a pension.
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Aye, ok.
I’m sensing disagreement though.
So (if that is the case) I’m sure you will explain why you think the government is actually obligated to give you anything.
That’s odd, the original schedule is here Pensions Act 1995
Not sure how well it was followed - I wasn’t paying *that* much attention to how it unfolded. The increase in state pension age to 66 was October 2020.
When two positives make a negative 
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I knew changes were planned and when I quit my salaried job in 2010 I checked I had enough contributions for a full pension and could do fine self employed with low income NI exemption until what I thought would be my retirement date.
Had I known, or been told, I would have continued to pay NI to get full pension and continued my consultancy business for much longer.
I was neither stupid or ignorant of the changes but seriously misled.
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When I left the UK in 2005 I had 30 years of NI contributions which would have been enough for a full state pension, in 2016 this changed so I had to find 5 years worth of additional contributions or accept a reduced pension.
Last year the French government upped the retirement starting age with zero notice, luckily, I crept under the DOB threshold by a few weeks so started to receive my pension as previously forecast.
The moral of the above, governments will do what the fook they like and nothing should be taken for granted.
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This doesn’t please me either, but I may well leave full time employment at 65 and be frugal for a couple of years.
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I retired from teaching in 2014 at 60years 7 months (born December 1953), knowing my MRC and small teachers pension would be paid but expecting to wait till 62 for my state pension and prepared accordingly. After retiring and before my 61 birthday I received a letter informing me that my state pension wouldn’t be paid till May 2019. Friends born in January 1953 did receive their pension at 60!
I was in the industry in 1991, the training that explained the changes was around 1994 ish. Most of the people I knew in the industry were not aware until much later, I had changed insurance company so I was on a training course hence the brilliant trainer Annie was trying to get the messages out there but it wasnt exactly shouted from the roof tops and how much information company pension scheme administrators gave out is questionable.
The increase in number of full years of NI was a more sneaky change, I agree BUT the new state pension is more than the old one and the increase in contribution years from 30 to 35 (16%) was less than the increase in pension (currently the new state pension is worth about 33% more than the old basic state pension).
I presently have 40 years chalked up, I’m hoping that will be enough to insulate me from future increases in requirements.
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