The High Court has dismissed a challenge to recent increases in the state pension age for women, ruling that the changes were not discriminatory.

Between 1995 and 2018, the state pension age for women was increased from 60 to 65, in line with the age for men. It is now set to rise to 66 for both men and women by 2020, and 67 by 2028.

Campaigners say women born in the 1950s haven't had enough time to prepare for the changes.

Two claimants took the Department for Work and Pensions to court, saying the changes constituted "unjustified direct discrimination on the grounds of age" and "indirect sex discrimination against women".

However, the court rejected the claim on all grounds, saying there was "no direct discrimination on grounds of sex, or age and sex combined", and noting that the legislation was put in place to "equalise a historic asymmetry between men and women".

In conclusion to the ruling, the judges added:

"We are saddened by the stories we read in the evidence lodged by the claimants. But our role as judges in this case is limited.

"The wider issues raised by the claimants, about whether these choices were right or wrong or good or bad, are not for us; they are for members of the public and their elected representatives."

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