Today campaigners at the High Court lost a legal battle against the government’s handling of the rise in the women’s state pension age.
The application to the court raised matters arising from the government policy of equalisation of the pension ages and its impact on women born in the 1950s, including the taper mechanism used to raise the State Pension Age, in combination with a failure to properly inform women of the changes.
Michael Mansfield QC, representing the women affected, said, “They have pushed women who were already disadvantaged into the lowest class you can imagine.
“They’re on the brink of survival, and I’m not overstating that. This group – especially the percentage of the group affected born in 1953 onwards – are increasingly having taken away from them four to six years’ worth of state pension. We’re dealing with very serious sums: £37,000 to £47,000. I think any citizen would be concerned by that withdrawal.”
Sarah Church, Labour’s South Swindon Parliamentary Candidate said, “This judgement will affect about 9000 women across Swindon. I have met women who came to me in tears because they have been so thoroughly let down by the changes to the pensions they have earned over the course of their working life. To change the rules when people have already accrued benefits is incredibly unfair, and for some it has been financially catastrophic.”
