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The fight for women’s pension justice
The 3.4 million retired workers known as the Waspi women, who were ripped off by Tory pension changes in the '90s, are some of the worst-hit victims of the general election disaster, writes RUTH HUNT
Campaigners outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, where a ruling is expected on a case brought by campaigners who argue changes to the state pension age have unlawfully discriminated against women born in the 1950s in October

WHEN Labour included proposals in its manifesto to help the Waspi women (Women Against State Pension Increases), spokesperson of the campaign group “We Paid In, You Pay Out” Trudy Baddams said: “At last we were being taken seriously, our voices had been heard, Labour were listening to us, the newspapers were listening to us.” She paused. “Our group finally had hope.”

As the proposals were fleshed out, both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell talked of “righting an historic wrong.” The party included an online calculator so the women affected could work out what they would be entitled to if Labour was elected.

Although there was a lot of criticism levelled at Labour’s proposals, they stood their ground, certain that the issue of the state pension age for women born in the 1950s was one of fairness — of doing the right thing.

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