Government Apprenticeship Scheme and the WASPI Woman

In the summer of 2017, the Work & Pensions Minister, Guy Opperman, managed to cause outrage and indignation to many, if not all, WASPI women, by suggesting that they should take out an apprenticeship if they were having difficulty making ends meet.

He recently re-iterated this in the House of Commons during his statement on pensions in response to a question from a member of the opposition on behalf of the WASPIs.

Here's an extract from the publication by the House of Commons library No 06113, 4^th January 2019 which show the actual take-up of apprenticeships by people (not just women), in 2016/17.

Only 4,000 people, both men and women, aged 60+ signed up for an apprenticeship in 2016/17. That's only 1% of the population!

Not only that. Another publication by the Department of Education, a survey on Learners and Apprentices 2018 shows the numbers of people who failed to complete their apprenticeships and their reasons for it.

      Note the small print at the bottom - “it was already known that many            learners and apprentices do not complete their training.”

     

        Here is a summary of the official statistics as stated in the summary

Note how many more women than men cited “personal or domestic problems” as their reason for not completing. More evidence of inequality!

 The final sentence clearly states that “these issues disproportionately impacted on women and those aged 25 and over.”

If ever there was proof enough that apprenticeships for WASPIs do not and will not work, this is it!

 And here's more evidence of personal challenges faced by these older apprentices.

 So, Mr Guy Opperman, Work & Pensions Minister, you already know that your so-called solution simply doesn't work, but then again, we could have told you before your department spent all that money commissioning the survey!

What do you think? The evidence clearly shows that there is no benefit whatsoever for a WASPI woman in taking up an apprenticeship. Unless, of course, she is 100% fit and well, leads an extremely quiet and non-disruptive life, has not experienced a recent change in employment, is fully able to understand and absorb new information, is not physically disabled and has no mental or emotional difficulties.

How many WASPI women do you know who can satisfy all of those criteria?

Answers on a postcard........!

WASPI: Labour Party Listening..but Not Hearing!

The recent announcement at the Labour Party Conference has gone down like a lead balloon with many of the WASPI ladies – and rightly so!

That's not to say that we don't appreciated the fact that at least someone is listening to our voices..all of them are agreed that something must be done, but to offer SOME of us the “opportunity” to take a reduced pension (for life!) from age 64 quite simply DOES NOT address the issues.

There will be a number of women, most of whom are living in dire circumstances and dependent on their relatives and food banks to make ends meet who will be sorely tempted to seize this with both hands if Labour get into government, whenever that may be. To do so would be to condemn themselves to a life of poverty and misery for an average of 22 years. They will simply not have enough to live on and many, I'm afraid, will not survive.

When we spoke with Jeremy Corbyn at a recent event in Cleveleys he appeared to be listening to us and took copious notes during our conversations, assuring us that the Labour Party would redress the balance and put right the wrongs of the Tories. Pension Credit from age 60 would go a long way to resolve our problems and I am sure thst many more women would be happy to settle for that.

However, the aims of the WASPI Campaign are to secure “fair transitional pension arrangements for ALL women affected by the rises in State Pension Age”.

The only acceptable solution, in my opinion, is Pension Credit, backdated to age 60 and compensation for all losses sustained in the meantime. The Tories are intending to steal up to £48,000 off every WASPI over the next few years and the Labour Party's offer of a pension from age 64 is a slap in the face for all of us.

Jeremy, please check your notebook and show us that you were not only listening to us...but that you were actually HEARING us! For the MANY, NOT the few!

Fundamental Creationists, WASPIs and Only 6,000 Years Young

Finally, after six weeks of electoral campaigning we now have a “hung parliament” and Mrs May is digging her kitten heels firmly into the grounds of No 10.

As I write, her two top advisers have both resigned and the Tories are in discussion with the DUP. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn has claimed a victory for socialism and for “the many – not the few”. He and his team are already preparing an alternative Queens Speech with a view to him forming a minority government and I wish him well. After all, he has personally promised that his government will “right the wrongs” and give us our money.

As a Waspi, my overriding interest is in encouraging the debate in Westminster on the “fair transitional arrangements” we are seeking to help redress the outright robbery of our pensions, in many cases, in excess of £40,000.

Theresa Maybot (“Strong & Stable”) and her cabinet have consistently refused to debate this and have stuck to the tried and tested line of having already provided £1 billion for this and that there is no money left.

Meanwhile, we are left with the possibility of the Tories “in bed with” the DUP.

Who are they and what do they represent? Collectively, they are Ian Paisley Jr MP, Sammy Wilson MP, Paul Girvan MP, Nigel Dodds MP, Gavin Robinson MP, Emma Little-Pengelly MP, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP, Jim Shannon MP, David Simpson MP and Gregory Campbell MP.

At least three of them are anti-gay rights with one of them having told a bunch of school children that two people of the same sex engaging in intercourse was an “abomination”. Most of them are anti-abortionist unless there is a risk of death to the mother. They believe that no one person should be able to take the life of a living soul, even if it is still a foetus in the womb. Interesting that one of them, Gregory Campbell MP, has previously voted in favour of the Death Sentence being re-instated!

Many of them have paramilitary connections. Ohhh nooo! Not like Jeremy Corbyn! What a surprise!

Ian Paisley Jnr MP is a supporter and a close friend of the Trump family. Mrs Maybot will, at least, have something in common with him!

Finally, most of these people are creationist fundamentalists who believe that the earth is only 6,000 years young and was built in six days! They believe that the Bible should be taken “as read” and that we should be teaching this to our children. Many of them are supporters of the Caleb Foundation.

Now, I am not knocking anyone for their beliefs. We are all entitled to our opinions and I don't doubt that all of these people are genuinely trying to act in the best interests of their constituents – after all – they were voted in by them. But are they really the kind of people we want to be voting with the Tories and deciding OUR FUTURES?

Well, have I got news for you! It would seem that at least six out of them are WASPI supporters! Let that sink in!

The DUP collective have the power to hold the Tories to ransom on this subject. They can use the Waspi issue to help us win our pensions! They can refuse to cooperate on any other issue unless the Maybot agrees to give us what we want!

Whether they will or not remains to be seen but I would urge all of you, if you are constituents of any of these MPs, to write, email, and lobby them as soon as possible to ask for their support whilst they are negotiating the terms of their agreement with the Tories.

These guys may have strange beliefs and ideologies whilst also sharing some dubious alliances but they can also be our knights in shining armour! Let's not miss this opportunity to get them to work for all of us while the window of opportunity is open!

WASPIs - Not going away in 2018

When a small contingent of Chorley WASPI supporters met with our local MP in March 2017, whilst fully supportive of our cause, he warned us that nothing would happen to resolve our issues unless there was a General Election and that was, according to Mrs Maybe, not on the cards. A bleak, but not disparaging opinion from the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle MP and I don't think even he could have have imagined just how soon the GE2017 snap election would occur, if at all!

Why a General Election? Because he was of the opinion that for Mrs Mayhem and her cronies, my words, not his, a declaration by them of support for the WASPI ladies could be a potential vote winner and may well be a significant part of the Tory manifesto. To date, so far as I am aware, this has not been the case and we are still being ignored by the majority of Tory MPs.

On the other hand, however, the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn MP, has publicly stated that, Labour will listen to our voices and make every effort to help us to win back what is rightfully ours - our pensions.

As it happened, Labour did not win the GE2017,  not least because of the deliberate twisting of words by the establishment controlled media, who sought  to sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of those of lesser intelligence with a view to swaying them into tactical voting, or into bringing back the worst Conservative government for generations. This has led to more austerity, more cuts to public services, a death knell for the NHS, the rise of a brutal regime and many, many deaths of innocent people in our country, young and old.

Are we living in a Democracy or a Dictatorship? I, for one, for the first time in my life, voted Labour because I sincerely believed, and still do, that they can redress the balance and bring about a fairer society.

But, the worst case scenario played out and the Tories remained in power.  Where does that  leave the WASPI women in 2018?

Assuming that there is nothing on the table for us and they still won't listen to us, then we will have to see them in Court. Bindmans, our lawyers, are preparing a case against the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) for maladministration over their failure to notify us of changes to our State Pension Age. They have a good case, but will need our help to achieve a satisfactory outcome and the most important elements in any court situation are evidence and money. Without evidence there is no case to defend and without money there can be no trial.

WASPI ladies have been portrayed by certain parts of the media as greedy, money grabbing, banner raising, flag waving old ladies with nothing better to do, but that is far from true. There are 3.8 million of us and some of us have been quietly playing our part and gathering the very important evidence that will help Bindmans fight a successful case.

But....and there is a BUT....I don't believe that ANY government will be in a position to replace our stolen pensions in full and hand it to us on a silver platter! It would cost too much and even we WASPIs are supportive of equalisation with men for our State Pension Age. 

My best guess it that IF any arrangements are agreed in principal then it will not be a "free for all" solution. It could be a case of "first come..first served". There will probably be restrictions and qualifications for everyone and it will be up to us to make individual claims for compensation. We will need to prove that we are deserving of any money we are claiming and that we have taken reasonable steps to highlight our individual circumstances and attempted to seek resolution ourselves, which brings me back to "evidence". We will need to show evidence of individually pro-actively seeking redress.

This is why it is important that ALL women affected by the changes in legislation who wish to be adequately compensated should as of now be writing to the DWP, stating their cases and requesting the same. I really do think that it will be a case of "if you don't ask, you won't receive".

This is why the WASPI movement is so important. The WASPI website at waspi.co.uk has a wealth of information and guidance that is publicly available on how best to approach the DWP with template letters that anyone with access to a computer can do for themselves.

It can be soul-destroying and disheartening to feel that you are trying to take on the world by yourself. This is why joining WASPI and becoming a member of your local group is so important. We are here to help you take on the establishment by giving you guidance and practical assistance in preparing your letters which, after all, could be the key to unlocking your individual pensions, or part of, sooner rather than later.

Also, by signing up as a paid up member of WASPI, even if you do nothing else, your money will help to pay for the Court action.

Please don't wait for other people to do what you know you should do for yourself. Don't sit back and expect positive results without being prepared to take personal action. JOIN US and be part of our campaign. Make new friends and gain the support you need to secure your future. Join us at  http://waspi.co.uk/membership and find your local WASPI Group by searching the Directory which is available at http://waspi.co.uk/local-groups 

   

    

Photo credits: Reportuk.org, Enprotothema.gr, Article.wn.com, BoltonLabourHultonWard.co.uk

Waspi Dilemma - To Eat or to Heat

WASPI Dilemma – To Heat Or To Eat?

Wouldn't it be better to have your cake..AND Heat it?

Now that we've finally said “goodbye” to that “Annus Horribilis” of 2016 it's time to contemplate 2017 and beyond.

Many WASPI women, and some men, are facing still more challenges and uncertainty from suddenly finding themselves “pensionless pensioners” and faced with no jobs, no income and having to stand in line with everyone else at the Jobcentre to claim handouts, which, under this increasingly murderous Tory government, they might never receive.

We can only continue to spread the word about the evil and unjust way we have been robbed by the DWP and continue to fight for a fair outcome – at the very least an interim series of, possibly reduced, payments until we finally reach our designated State Pension Age.

I am one of you. Like many of you I will have to wait 6 years for my state pension and was never officially informed of the fact other than the odd whisper in the media from which I caught on to the fact that I would probably have to wait until I was 66.

However, I consider myself to be one of the luckier ones. I have a part-time job AND I am also self-employed, and both of these jobs enable me to spend a lot of hours at home doing things I love to do. I am a widow of four years and don't have any grand-children like many of you, but if I did, I'm sure I would want to spend time with them and thankfully both my parents are alive and in reasonably good health, so I have not yet been called upon to be a full-time carer for either of them, which, of course, I would do in a flash and even with all that extra time drain, I would still be able to keep both my jobs and my quality time at home.

My own health is reasonable but up and down. Sometimes it takes supreme effort to get out of bed in the morning, mainly due to the pains in my back and legs and I am also diabetic, but I try to keep going because I know that if I give in, as I am tempted to do many times, I will probably end up a bored and lonely old woman with no-one to talk to and no reason to do anything at all.

So, it is with all the above in mind that I have decided that 2017 is the year in which I will really try to get involved in the WASPI campaign and also reach out to my fellow WASPIs with a message that all is not lost!

Many of you have said that you feel that your lives have come down to an everyday choice of whether to eat, or heat your home because that's what it has become. You may have a “job” that you were hoping to leave but can't because if you did you would be heading for destitution. Or, worse still, you don't have a job and feel embarassed and humiliated going to the Jobcentre to sign on for your £70 a week, which we all know just isn't enough to live on no matter how frugally you try to live.

So, how can you have your cake...and heat it? Well, sadly, there is no easy answer because it really depends on your individual circumstances and I can't answer that question for you but I can point you in the right direction. It's called Working Tax Credit and one of the things that the Tory government actually got right!

Unfortunately, they don't go out of their way to teach people how to use it and the benefits are hidden away as part of their agenda to get everyone into “work” so that they can claim credit for reducing the unemployment figures. It is simply referred to as an “in work benefit” and we therefore assume it is only for those with paying jobs. It isn't!

You don't even have to have an income to claim Working Tax Credit. This is because it is based on the amount of hours you “work”, not how much you are paid for that work.

Let me explain how this works for me. I have a paid job and I am self-employed. My paid job is actually a “zero hours contract” which, for me, is great! I can work when I want to, mainly from home and I get paid either on actual hours worked or a commission on sales, whichever is the greater at the end of every month. Trust me, this is a genuine job with a recognised wine company and my title is “Wine Adviser”. I make some of my own appointments from home and the company provide some too and I can potentially earn as little, or as much, as I want to. All I then have to do is visit my customers and sell them wine. If they buy, great, I earn commission. If they don't I get paid a considerably reduced, but legal, hourly rate.

So, because I am only working an average of 15 hours a week at this I don't earn a lot from it but it's enough to pay my everyday bills. In addition to this, because my income is quite low, I can claim housing benefit and council tax credits.

I am also self-employed and this takes me well over the required hours for a 60 year old of 16 hours per week. My self-employment is made up of a number of activities, none of which are particularly strenuous but all of which are very enjoyable. Along with my business partner who is 70 and claiming his state pension, we run MiTeamShirts, a t-shirt printing and personalised goods business which operates from his home, is mainly internet based and generates a reasonable turnover with growth potential, but with small taxable profits.

I also have an Ebay shop, from which I sell, at a reasonable mark-up, goods like collectibles that I pick up from auctions and charity shops. It's great fun, gets me out of the house and is currently ticking over nicely.

There are a couple of other income streams I have which anyone can do that I am developing but the most important thing about all of these is that I love doing them, and they allow me to claim Working Tax Credits in addition and in total give me an income not far short of what I would be receiving from the State Pension.....Roll on SPA!!

So, I'm doing okay and grateful for everything I've got but the important message here is that provided you are over 60 and working (employed or self-employed) at least 16 hours a week, you could probably claim Working Tax Credit too!

If you have an Ebay shop, or similar, that is registered as a business, and you notify the tax authorities within one year of starting up, then you are self-employed!

Make it a habit to attend one auction a week for 8 hours and then spend another 8 hours at home listing your items and shipping them out when you sell them and you could potentially qualify for Working Tax Credits. (I stress potentially because it really depends on how much actual income you already have coming in but as a rough guide it could be up to £19,000 a year including pension income).

So please take heart from this ladies and gentlemen – all is not lost! Check out the link below to go to the Money Advice Service for more information on Working Tax Credit. Money Advice Service

Please also visit the Government's own Working Tax Credit Calculator here Tax Credits Calculator

If you are interested in discovering other routes to self-employment and working from home contact me on Twitter or email me chris011056@gmail.com and I will do my best to help.

Chrissie Fuller

January 2017

Chrissie Fuller is a WASPI member, with previous experience as an Independent Financial Adviser.