CEREDIGION Women Against State Pension Injustice (WASPI) has taken the first step to help challenge a recent High Court decision.

On October 3, the Royal Courts of Justice announced that the two justices who heard the case in June had found that the 3.8m women in the UK had not been discriminated against when their state pension age was put back by several years with little or no notice.

“We were rather shell shocked when we heard the decision but we vowed to carry on our struggle to get justice,” said WASPI joint co-ordinator Helen Lyall Williams, who chaired a meeting of the Ceredigion WASPI Steering Group on Saturday, October 19.

“We are convinced that the 5,000 women in Ceredigion born in the 1950s who have been cheated out of several years of the pensions they paid into, have been treated unfairly.

“We have contributed to the cost of the legal fees for permission to appeal the decision.

“We heard yesterday that enough money had been raised. The request for permission to appeal the decision has been lodged with the High Court.

“The speed with which the target was met shows the strength of feeling among 1950s women and their supporters.”

A date for the hearing has not yet been set but is expected to be in November.