Waspis: Ignorance of the law is no excuse

MUCH publicity is given to the WASPI claim of the loss of pension rights for women in matching the retirement pension threshold as men on the grounds they were not informed of the increased pension age qualification.

To recap, the Pensions Act 1995 (nearly 20 years ago) provided for the state pension age for women to increase from 60 to 65 over the period April 2010 to 2020.

Several amendments and concessions have been made since then to bring women’s retirement pensions requirements in line with those of men’s. So equality in this respect has been achieved.

Life expectancy for both sexes is now far longer than it ever was when pensions were first brought in and so governments of any persuasion realise that state pension age qualifications must be affordable to the country as a whole. Perhaps a bitter pill to swallow but a true fact of life in this day and age.

If we want to keep the triple lock, the present taxpayers of this country have to find the money to secure the futures of pensioners, who one day, barring premature death, will be sharing the national pot.

It is regrettable that some claim not to to be aware of the change in the law relating to women’s pension equal rights with those their male counterparts. It has never been a ‘secret’ as some would claim.

It may seem a bit harsh to say but the Latin phrase Ignorantia Juris non Excusat, which translates as ‘Ignorance of the law is no excuse’, is perhaps a hard pill to swallow. Equality comes at a price I’m afraid.

The fact is that this levelling up of equal pension age qualification has been in the public domain for many years now, so why is it only now at this late stage it is creating such an uproar? There’s no point in shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Edward Kynaston Lydney, Gloucestershire