A gay man has lost his appeal to have the same pension rights as a straight couple.
The Court of Appeal held that John Walker, who worked for chemicals company Innospec, is not legally entitled to pass on his full retirement fund to his husband when he dies—meaning his husband would receive £500 rather than £41,000, the amount he would be able to leave to a wife.
An exemption in the Equality Act 2010 means that same-sex partners can only inherit pension accrued by their partners after 5 December 2005, when civil partnerships were introduced. However, it was argued that the exemption contravenes the EU Framework Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment, in Innospec Ltd v Walker [2015] EWCA Civ 1000.
Alastair Meeks, pensions partner at Pinsent Mason, says: “The cost to schemes of providing fully equalised benefits could be substantial—government estimates in excess of £3bn between private and public sector pension schemes have been reported.
“Making retrospective changes to pension schemes is always fraught with difficulty. There are many points to consider—such as the impact of the extra cost on scheme funding or what to do about individuals who have paid additional contributions to purchase extra survivors’ benefits.”
Isabel Nurse-Marsh, who heads the pensions litigation team at Pinsent Masons, says: “Many lawyers will not be surprised at the outcome of this appeal. It shows the courts are unwilling to intervene and challenge the legality of exemptions to European discrimination law.
“The Employment Appeal Tribunal felt that the UK law was clear in allowing schemes not to equalise survivors’ benefits fully, and to ignore this would be to ‘legislate rather than interpret’. The Court of Appeal evidently agrees.”
