Women’s state pension changes to get legal review

A campaign group representing women born in the 1950s has won the right to a judicial review into changes to their state pension age.

A High Court judge has granted a review into how the government handled the raising of the pension age from 60.

Joanne Welch, from the BackTo60 group which brought the case, said she was “absolutely delighted” with the ruling.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said it would not comment on live legal proceedings.

• Landmark day for state pension equality

For more than 60 years – up until 2010 – women received their state pensions at the age of 60, but that has been rising ever since.

Some women born in the 1950s, who had been expecting to get a state pension at the age of 60, claim they did not know about plans to delay their pensions.

The current state pension age is 65 for men and women, and will rise steadily to 67 by 2028

The BackTo60 group is calling for all women who were born in the 1950s to be given the same amount of state pension as they would have received had it started at the age of 60. The government has said this would cost more than £70bn and has ruled out the idea.

The judicial review was being sought claiming the pension policy of successive governments “constitutes a gross injustice and is discriminatory”.

A date has yet to be set for the next stage of the legal challenge.