What our founder Laura said on the BBC this week
This week Laura was on BBC Morning Live with Gethin Jones and Holly Hamilton, updating on the latest WASPI campaign news and sharing some rather bleak findings the Pensions Commission has had on our retirement pots.
What’s WASPI?
WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) is a UK campaign group representing women born in the 1950s who were affected by changes to the state pension age.
The 1995 Pensions Act raised women’s state pension age from 60 to 65 (equalising it with men’s), with further increases to 66 brought in by the 2011 Pensions Act. The WASPI campaign argues these women weren’t given adequate notice of the changes, leaving many without time to make alternative financial plans – causing significant hardship.
The update we’d seen in the press was that since the government have rejected the recommendation (by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsmen) for compensation for a second time, the group are considering legal action against the government.
What about the pensions outlook?
The Pensions Commission released its Interim Report in May on the future of UK pensions – and it doesn’t look good.
Across almost 200 pages, we hear that 15 million people in the UK are undersaving for retirement – with women, carers and the self-employed facing the biggest structural barriers.
Whilst final recommendations are expected early next year – it’s a reminder to all of us that even though the system is not working, we do still need to do what we can to invest and save for our futures.
You can check out the segment by watching BBC iplayer.