A great-grandmother is part of a campaign group attempting to mount a legal challenge against the government over changes to the state pension.

Marion Lee is a member of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI). It was set up in April to oppose changes to the age at which women can draw their pensions.

Before 2010, the state retirement age was 60 for women and 65 for men. Under government legislation, the age for pension eligibility for women will rise to 63 by next year and 65 by 2018.

In 2020, this will have then gone up again to 66 for men and women. For those worst hit by the changes, it could mean a loss of up to £15,000 in state pension.

WASPI is fighting the new rules, arguing the women affected, those born after April 6, 1953, were not given sufficient notice of the changes and, as such, had little time to prepare for them.

It is also claiming many women are being forced to claim out-of-work benefits as they often find it harder to find full-time work in their 50s and 60s.

The 61-year-old, of Commonwealth Close, Sittingbourne, said: “I should have retired last year and now I can’t retire until 2020, which means I’ve actually had my retirement age moved twice.

“I left school at 15, the only time I’ve not worked is when I took off five years to care for my sick mother who had cancer.

“After my mother died in 2007, I went out to look for another job. I couldn’t find anything full-time even though I made about 2,000 applications. I had to deal with the humiliation of signing on at the dole office.”

She now works part-time as a cleaner at Fulston Manor School, but says there are many women who struggle to get these types of positions because of ageism in the jobs market.

WASPI founding member Anne Keen confirmed the group has raised enough money to hire a barrister to determine whether there are legal grounds to challenge the government.

She said: “We feel the same rationale that was applied to MPs and civil servants when they had their occupational pensions reformed should be applied to us. They had 10 years’ notice.

“I was expecting to retire at 60, but 18 months before then I received a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions telling me I couldn’t get my pension until March 2017, which is almost four years after I had planned for.”