Court appeal 'last chance' for Wigan state pension inequality protestors

The Backto60 campaign was in court in London this week for a judicial review appeal following a bruising loss in a case against the Government in the High Court last year.

The legal action has received the full support of the borough Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) groups as well as Wigan Council’s Waspi champion.

Protests have been going on for several years as women born in the 1950s say they were not given a proper chance to prepare for retirement because of the raising of the age at which they are able to claim their state pension.

Those affected are crossing their fingers and hoping the judicial review appeal goes their way, with campaigners saying they are in something of a last chance saloon as far as legal avenues are concerned.

Jan Fulster, Wigan and Makerfield Waspi joint co-ordinator, said: “I think this is the only thing on the horizon at this moment in time.

“Waspi has been trying to give evidence to committees in parliament but with the way things are with the coronavirus nothing whatsoever is happening.

“The situation has deteriorated for many women. Some are still working, including quite a number still out there as key workers, at a time when the World Health Organisation says anybody over 60 should be taking it particularly carefully.

“Everybody is pinning their hopes on this judicial review.

“The letters that were sent didn’t make it sound like it was going to affect us. It was all very smoke and mirrors and nobody questioned it until it got much further down the line.

“It’s only when people have gone into it that they’ve realised how they have been discriminated against.

“Many of them only have the state pension to rely on and many thought they would be OK but have then got divorced or are single and found their financial situation is not what they had anticipated.”

The proceedings in London this week were live streamed with women in Wigan and across the country who have found themselves in dire financial straits tuning in to hear the legal arguments.

Ms Fulster says Waspi women had been hoping to go down to London to offer support in person but the pandemic made that impossible.

It was expected that Backto60’s legal team, led by Michael Mansfield QC who represented the Hillsborough families, would put new evidence before the courts at the judicial review.

Waspi’s battle for fair transitional arrangements for women has attracted strong political backing in the borough, with MPs and councillors lining up to give their support.

Wigan Council’s Waspi champion Coun Pat Draper said: “There are 3.9 million 1950s-born women in the country who are fighting for their state pension, which they should have received at 60 instead of now only receiving it at 66.

“They need justice now. I fully support the Backto60 Campaign group to get justice for all our 1950s-born women who had their pensions stolen.”