Masked silent Waspi protest in Chorley 'in solidarity' with judicial review calls into state pension age rise for women

The Chorley Waspi Supporters Group camped up outside The Coffee Club in Market Street on Wednesday afternoon (June 5) in solidarity with the national activist group Backto60, which on June 5 and 6 headed to the High Court in London for a judicial review into the decision.

The campaign says that women born in the 1950s were treated unfairly because they were not given enough time to make adjustments to cope with six more years without a state pension.

Group co-ordinator Chrissie Fuller said: “There are some 6,400 women in the Chorley district affected by this.

"All we want is justice. This is about highlighting the injustice to women of a certain age.”

The retirement age for women was increased from 60 to 65, in line with men, and will rise to 66 by 2020.

And while the call for a judicial review hasn’t been brought by the national Waspi group, but the Backto60 group, Chrissie said they were “all coming under the same umbrella to support each other”.

“Every Waspi group in the country has joined in in solidarity,” she explained.

A spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said: “The government decided more than 20 years ago that it was going to make the state pension age the same for men and women as a long-overdue move towards gender equality, and this has been clearly communicated.”

Protestors wore masked at the Chorley protest "to show how we are nobody to the government", Chrissie added.

• Anyone in the Chorley area wishing to get involved with the Waspi campaign can contact Chrissie by email to waspichorley@gmail.com.