Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Just a query for any WASPI's out there who live in the TRNC. When you applied for your UK State Pension (and finally received it) did the UK pay you at the New Pension Rate or at the Old standard rate please?

Interested as wife just applied for her's.

Many thanks.

Well I am stunned! It seems like I am married to the only WASPI woman living in North Cyprus - lol, how lucky can I get? Just in case you don't know the WASPI women were those women who were shafted by the UK Government and have lost - in my wifes case - a whole year of State Pension after paying in 38 years of NI, simply because of her date of birth.

Now having contacted the DWP she finds that her State Pension will be the Standard Pension and not the New State Pension - it beggars belief!

I don't understand why she doesn't get the new state pension. I am a waspi having been born November 1953. My friend who was born February 1953 was able to retire nearly 2 years before me! She got the old state pension and I got the new.
I live in UK but don't understand why that makes a difference.

Brend, that makes two - or maybe three - of us. DWP seemed to be confused this morning about where Cyprus was and where we lived and did not understand the "Divided Island" but had heard about it - lol. We think it may be because of SERPS and compulsory "Opting out" that happened to Military and Civil Service people but to lose what appears to be around £40 a week pension on top of a complete years pension is taking the mick!

This link gives you all the information regarding old and new pensions.... https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... -explained

Also Money box radio 4 and Money Box Live have been running a bit about wrong pensions paid
You can log on and skip through to the pensions bit
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qjnv


Also missing armed forces pensions

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08s6v7p

Dalartokat, many thanks, we have read the info on the Gov.Uk websites till our eyes bleed - lol. Whoever designed these web sites is very clever at taking you in a direction that provides no answer to your questions, I love the part where you can get a pension forecast - well right up to the time you are eligible to receive a pension then you can’t get a forecast at all!

Still, it is the first time we have spotted anything about contracting out and think that may be the reason. We will wait now for the first payment to hit the bank then query it with DWP. My daughter actually works in DWP but I am reluctant to ask her for advice at this stage - she tends to be a touch aggressive - lol.

Try this link..... https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-ad ... e-pension/

I am a Waspi and get the new state pension, however I have roughly £20 a week deducted because I was contracted out having a Civil.Service Pension.

Maisiemoo, Thanks, thought that might be the answer. Interesting that there is something going on with us who ended up being contracted out, I will see if I can find it again tomorrow but it has now become case law!

Same here. Born in March 54 I had to wait until I was 65 and six months. I get the new rate but was also contracted out because of my Teaching pension. Strange thing is my teaching friends, same age as me as we trained together, all get more than me........... Guessing some local authorities opted out and some didn't. When queried with the DWP they said it was because of the teaching pension being designed to make up the difference.
Teatime you were right! Losing myself a year there lol!

Panochat, I can't understand why you had to wait that long, my wife was born June 54 and got hers at 65 and 9 months. I worked for the civil dervice and don't get the full pension because of being contracted out.

I was born in December 1953 and had to wait until I was 65 and 3 months. My first month I got something like about twenty quid. My wife is a year and two days younger and has to wait until she is 66 (December) and gets over 200 quid the first month. How they work it all out is beyond my iq.

OK, I have given up with this! There so much information out there and so much of it is contradictory that I have lost the plot - lol. All I can do is gather all the "Facts" together, wait till the official notification of how much pension will be paid arrives and then ask my daughter - who coincidentaly works for DWP - what the actual official line is regarding age, NI payment requirement, retirement ages, old pension, new pension and location of the pensioner, including of course "Contracting in or out" effects and what actions the Gov are taking in retrospect to that! Then, with a lot of luck and a following wind I might find out why all pensions are different. For sure I already know that if the DWP pay you too much then it is your fault and you have to pay it back - lol, also if you don't claim back what the DWP owe you then they consider you don't want it and will spend it on smarties or something! This query all started because of this: https://www.express.co.uk/finance/perso ... racted-out - wish I had not read it now - lol. Many thanks to all for all comments, it has been a real ride this has - stay safe out there people.

Years ago, as I was trying to do some pension planning, for the U.K. it was “simply” a case of contacting the DHSS in Newcastle for a pension forecast. Back came shed loads of detailed information which allowed me to make the (as it has turned out) right choices. I wasn’t affected by the new pension payments, missing out on it by some months/years nor was I, fortunately as it turns out, a WASPI (or a woman for that matter!)

Since I was then living in Ireland I called the Pension Service in Sligo asking for, what I thought would be, a similar pension forecast.

The reply? “Sure, ye’ll be grand!” And that’s all I ever got!

It was only when I reached retirement age in Ireland and the pension came in did I discover I was, actually, “grand”!

But my sympathies are with all those women who have, effectively, been shafted by the U.K. government. SWMBO fortunately just missed the new scheme and it’s ramifications though she did have to wait past what used to be the normal retirement age (60?) by quite some time.

Ok tin helmet on, why all the fuss woman wanted equal rights and they live longer than men, they were all informed in plenty of time.

Jimm, you don’t need a tin helmet just keep wearing your mask! Women got equal rights because they had to fight for it, it was not given to them. My friends wife completed 22 years service in the military, doing the same job as the men in the same trade, for lower pay because of the X factor. She received her service pension at the end of her service the same as the men. Sadly, two years later she died - then because she was a women, her pension died with her, unlike a serviceman’s pension of course.

It is a bold statement to say that ALL women were informed in plenty of time, plenty of time to do what and how much time were ALL women given?

Indeed Waddo, it is a bold statement to say we were all told, we were not.

I had to wait another 2 years and 3 months before I could claim my state pension, believing I was to retire at 60 and caused me hardship, but not real hardship as some women have been through due to varying circumstances. That’s the key, everyone has had different circumstances and you cannot treat them all the same and say “they were all informed”.

The U.K. Government at the time, would not accept that not all women were informed and certain MPs, like one for example, Craig MacKinley for Ramsgate in Thanet, who could not possibly accept that any woman suffered hardship through not being informed.