BMA loses £4bn discrimination case over NHS widowers’ pensions

Article here. Excerpt:

'The British Medical Association has lost its legal challenge on NHS widowers’ pensions which could have cost the government more than £4bn.

The High Court ruled today that the preferential treatment of widows over widowers in relation to pension payments was "objectively and reasonably justified".

The test case, backed by the BMA, was brought by Iain Cockburn - the widower of Clare Boothroyd, a Warwickshire GP who died of cancer in 2007.

Boothroyd paid into the NHS scheme for 24 years - but widower Cockburn receives £3,200 a year less than he would were he the widow of a male scheme member.

This is because current legislation dictates that service prior to 5 April 1988 is not counted for the purposes of calculating widowers' pensions.

Lawyers for Mr Cockburn argued this amounted to unlawful discrimination that was "blatant" and "as direct as it gets" (PP Online, 15 July).

The Department of Health accepted that its actions were discriminatory but argued the discrimination was justified on the grounds that it was introduced to correct "factual inequalities" that had existed between men and women in the workplace.'