THOUSANDS of women in Barrow born in the 1950s were dealt a 'severe blow' on Tuesday.

The Court of Appeal decided that governments in 1995 and 2011 were entitled to raise the women’s state pension age by several years without notice.

The Court unanimously rejected the arguments of the Backto60 Campaign’s legal team that the women had been discriminated against when the law was changed so they had to work up to six more years to get their state pensions.

The justices found that there had been no discrimination and no obligation to tell the women about the changes.

They also found that the hearing had been lodged too late and was ‘substantially out of time’.

A spokeswoman for the Backto60 campaign said: “This really is heartbreaking for the 4000 1950s women in Barrow.

"It seems the British Justice system is incapable of recognising the fact that we have obviously been treated unfairly.

"We paid National Insurance Contributions all our working lives on the understanding we would get our pensions at 60. We will carry on fighting and putting pressure on parliament until we get justice."

Impacted women lost thousands of pounds of state-pension money when the Cameron-Clegg coalition government suddenly accelerated the timetable for a scheduled increase in the retirement age from 60 to 65, leaving thousands shortchanged.

Michael Mansfield QC and his team argued that 1950s women were discriminated against on the grounds of age and sex when their state pension age was changed from 60 to 66.

Lack of adequate notice of the changes had left many women in a desperate situation.

Catherine Williams, joint co-ordinator of Barrow & District Women Against State Pension Injustice (WASPI), said the group is ''not giving up' despite the bleak outcome.

She said: "Pat Molyneux and myself will continue to coordinate and run the Barrow in Furness and District group of WASPI as we have done for four years now

"We will always welcome new members as women become to realise this is something we should all fight together

"At our last week meeting we were all in agreement no matter what the outcome of the appeal was we aren’t giving up ,

"Many local women are affected (4000) some of whom are now in a worst position since the COVID pandemic as jobs have been lost.

"Waiting until 67 years for a pension when you have budgeted all your working life to retire at 60 isn’t easy and nationally there is now a huge increase in unemployment."