Julie Delve and Karen Glynn - supported by the campaign group ‘Backto60’ - last week took their case concerning pension age equalisation to the Court of Appeal.
Plans to increase the state pension age were first announced in the Pension Act 1995 but these changes were accelerated as part of the Pension Act 2011.
The changes meant that in 2010 the age at which women qualified for a State Pension began to increase - from aged 60 to 65 - to bring them in line with the age at which men receive their pension. A group of women born in the 1950s argued that these changes were made unfairly, as they were not given sufficient notice to add to their savings to make up the shortfall in state pension. The changes under both acts are thought to affect approximately 3.8 million women.
In 2019, Julie Delve and Karen Glynn took the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to court, claiming that the changes were discriminatory on the grounds of sex and age. However the women lost this hearing, with the High Court ruling that there was no direct discrimination on grounds of sex, because “this legislation does not treat women less favourably than men in law, rather it equalises a historic asymmetry between men and women, and thereby corrects historic direct discrimination against men”.
Undeterred, Julie Delve and Karen Glynn’s appeal was eventually heard in a two day case at the Court of Appeal last week - in which the verdict is yet to be announced. As the judiciary has now broken for its summer recess, this is likely to be after October 1 when they reconvene.
On the first day of the hearing, Michael Mansfield QC for the Backto60 campaign, described the poverty and financial hardship faced by many women affected by the changes.
He stated:
“This cohort are bearing the brunt and shouldering the onerous situations that arise after the statutes come into force.”
He added:
“Besides the economic - almost poverty line - existence they have to face, it goes without saying that the psychological and mental stress placed upon them, has reduced many people to an inability to go and do what they need to do to make ends meet.”
The DWP continue to maintain that the changes were necessary, with representative Sir James Eadie QC, remarking that pensions must be economically viable. If the women win their case and are awarded full restitution, it is thought it could cost the taxpayer in the region of £215billion.
In the meantime the State Pension age continues to increase, with a scheduled to rise to 66 by October 2020 - then to age 67 between 2026 and 2028.
Sometime between 2037 and 2039 - on a date yet to be decided - the age of eligibility for State Pension will then rise to 68.
