A transsexual who was told she would have to wait until the age of 65 to collect her pension because she used to be a man had her human rights breached, a European court has ruled.
Linda Grant, 68, was awarded £1,100 in damages and £19,000 in costs by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The judges said the government’s refusal to recognise her female status and give her a pension from the age of 60 violated her “right to respect for private and family life”, enshrined in European human rights legislation.
Grant applied for a state pension from her 60th birthday, but was told she would have to wait until she was 65 – the current pensionable age for men – because the decision was governed by gender details on the birth certificate.
The verdict follows a ruling in the European Court of Justice, which said last month that the government’s refusal to give a woman who had had a sex change a pension at the age of 60 was illegal under EU equality laws.
