The claimant was a civil servant who took voluntary redundancy in 2007 at the age of 26 and after eight years service. Under the redundancy scheme, she was entitled to a payment of £10,894.04; a worker aged over 35 with the same length of service would have been entitled to £17,690.58.

The ET rejected the claimant’s initial case of age discrimination on two alternative bases: (1) There were material differences between the Claimant's age group, (under 35) and the comparator group relied on (over 35). The two were not truly comparable (the comparator point) and/or (2) If, contrary to the first finding, the over 35 group were truly comparable, then the Respondents had objectively justified the less favorable treatment