Women in pension fight dealt devastating blow

MILLIONS of women born in the 1950s have been dealt a devastating blow after being told they cannot take their pensions case to the Supreme Court.

Campaign group Backto60 had hoped the Supreme Court would overturn the previous two rulings by High Court judges who said the Department for Work and Pensions did not have a sex discrimination case to answer.

Now the leader, Joanne Welch, has said that they cannot appeal against the first two decisions in the crowdfunded cases led by famous lawyer Michael Mansfield.

“We have received the decision of the Supreme Court and I am sorry to tell that permission has been refused,” said a tweet from Messrs Bimberg Peirce Ltd.

The Supreme Court has confirmed the decision.

The court case was the last hope of getting “full restitution” for what the women say was discrimination in the way the pension ages were equalised between men and women.

Many of the 3.8 million women hit by the changes say they were not informed or told too late when the state pension age was raised from 60 to 65 for women.

Others did not have a chance to build up a pension pot because of sex discrimination in the home and workplace.

There are 38,000 women born in the 1950s in Gloucestershire alone and there are several groups fighting for Waspi (Women against state pension inequality) women in different ways.

Now their only hope is that the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Sir Robert Behrens, will find in favour of their case of maladministration in the way it was handled by the Government.

He could award compensation but it is unlikely to be more than a few thousand pounds at most and some say it could be as low as between £500 and £950.

He is due to give his ruling on six sample cases soon but it is thought he was awaiting the results of the court case first.

A Gloucestershire Waspi leader, Hilary Simpson, said: “Although the BackTo60 case and the Ombudsman investigation were looking at separate issues, 1950s women will now be hoping that the Ombudsman’s findings on maladministration will be published as soon as possible.”

The news will be a devastating blow to many women in their late 60s still working during the pandemic.

Last week Waspi Cheltenham put out a statement saying they understood the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman may make an announcement “imminently”.

“We expect that this will be the official result of the first stage of their investigation,” it said.

Any decision made by the Ombudsman will apply to all 1950s women affected by a delay to their state pension, not just those who have made an official complaint.