We don’t owe Waspi women tea and biscuits

The pressure group Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) is oddly named. What their campaign opposes is pension equality.

Now, technically these activists born in the 1950s do not object to equalising the pension ages of men and women, so long as said activists don’t personally have to sacrifice for gender justice. Supposedly, the problem is insufficient notice.

Yet the UK bill to shift women’s state pension age from 60 to 65 was passed in 1995. That seems like pretty advance notice to me. Besides, government is not obliged to insure us against our expectations. The UK capriciously changes its tax policy every six months, and ‘but I didn’t expect a reduction of my capital gains allowance, so give me my money back’ doesn’t wash with HMRC. True, letters advising affected women that their pension age was changing didn’t go out until 2010, but the government wasn’t legallyobliged to send such letters ever.